Dr. Docker: A Large-Scale Security Measurement of Docker Image Ecosystem
Hequan Shi, Lingyun Ying, Libo Chen, Haixin Duan, Ming Liu, Zhi Xue · 2025
Docker has transformed modern software development, enabling the widespread reuse of containerized applications. Currently, Docker images are primarily distributed through centralized registries, among which Docker Hub is the largest, allowing developers to share and reuse images easily. The threats within these images also spread through the supply chain via dependency relationships, posing risks to anyone using the image and all images built based on it. However, it is unclear to what extent the threats within Docker images are distributed and propagated.