---
title: Scan images for vulnerabilities
description: Learn how to scan your Docker images for vulnerabilities.
keywords: registry, scan, vulnerability
---

[![Image Security Scanning](../../images/scanning_video.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=121poCB0Nn8 "Images Security Scanning"){: target="_blank" ._}

Docker Trusted Registry can scan images in your repositories to verify that they
are free from known security vulnerabilities or exposures, using Docker Security
Scanning. The results of these scans are reported for each image tag.

Docker Security Scanning is available as an add-on to Docker Trusted Registry,
and an administrator configures it for your DTR instance. If you do not see
security scan results available on your repositories, your organization may not
have purchased the Security Scanning feature or it may be disabled. See [Set up
Security Scanning in DTR](../../admin/configure/set-up-vulnerability-scans.md) for more details.

> **Tip**: Only users with write access to a repository can manually start a
scan. Users with read-only access can view the scan results, but cannot start
a new scan.

## The Docker Security Scan process

Scans run either on demand when a user clicks the **Start a Scan** links or
**Scan** button (see [Manual scanning](#manual-scanning) below), or automatically
on any `docker push` to the repository.

First the scanner performs a binary scan on each layer of the image, identifies
the software components in each layer, and indexes the SHA of each component in a
bill-of-materials. A binary scan evaluates the components on a bit-by-bit level,
so vulnerable components are discovered even if they are statically-linked or
under a different name.

The scan then compares the SHA of each component against the US National
Vulnerability Database that is installed on your DTR instance. When
this database is updated, DTR reviews the indexed components for newly
discovered vulnerabilities.

DTR scans both Linux and Windows images, but by default Docker doesn't push
image layers for Windows images so DTR won't be able to scan them.
If you want DTR to scan your Windows images, [configure Docker to always push
image layers](pull-and-push-images.md).

## Security scan on push

By default, Docker Security Scanning runs automatically on `docker push` to an
image repository.

If your DTR instance is configured in this way, you do not need to do anything
once your `docker push` completes. The scan runs automatically, and the results
are reported in the repository's **Images** tab after the scan finishes.

## Manual scanning

If your repository owner enabled Docker Security Scanning but disabled automatic
scanning, you can manually start a scan for images in repositories to which you
have `write` access.

To start a security scan, navigate to the **tag details**.

![](../../images/scan-images-for-vulns-1.png){: .with-border}

DTR begins the scanning process. You will need to refresh the page to see the
results once the scan is complete.

## Change the scanning mode

You can change the scanning mode for each individual repository at any time. You
might want to disable scanning if you are pushing an image repeatedly during
troubleshooting and don't want to waste resources scanning and re-scanning, or
if a repository contains legacy code that is not used or updated frequently.

> **Note**: To change an individual repository's scanning mode, you must have
`write` or `administrator` access to the repo.

To change the repository scanning mode:

1. Navigate to the repository, and click the **Settings** tab.
2. Scroll down to the **Image scanning** section.
3. Select the desired scanning mode.
![](../../images/scan-images-for-vulns-2.png){: .with-border}

## View security scan results

Once DTR has run a security scan for an image, you can view the results.

The **Images** tab for each repository includes a summary of the most recent
scan results for each image.

![](../../images/scan-images-for-vulns-3.png){: .with-border}
- A green shield icon with a check mark indicates that the scan did not find
any vulnerabilities.
- A red or orange shield icon indicates that vulnerabilities were found, and
the number of vulnerabilities is included on that same line.

If the vulnerability scan can't detect the version of a component, it reports
the vulnerabilities for all versions of that component.

From the **Images** tab you can click **View details** for a specific tag to see
the full scan results. The top of the page also includes metadata about the
image, including the SHA, image size, date last pushed and user who last pushed,
the security scan summary, and the security scan progress.

The scan results for each image include two different modes so you can quickly
view details about the image, its components, and any vulnerabilities found.

- The **Layers** view lists the layers of the image in order as they are built
by the Dockerfile.

    This view can help you find exactly which command in the build introduced
    the vulnerabilities, and which components are associated with that single
    command. Click a layer to see a summary of its components. You can then
    click on a component to switch to the Component view and get more details
    about the specific item.

    > **Tip**: The layers view can be long, so be sure
    to scroll down if you don't immediately see the reported vulnerabilities.

   ![](../../images/scan-images-for-vulns-4.png){: .with-border}

- The **Components** view lists the individual component libraries indexed by
the scanning system, in order of severity and number of vulnerabilities found,
most vulnerable first.

    Click on an individual component to view details about the vulnerability it
    introduces, including a short summary and a link to the official CVE
    database report. A single component can have multiple vulnerabilities, and
    the scan report provides details on each one. The component details also
    include the license type used by the component, and the filepath to the
    component in the image.
![](../../images/scan-images-for-vulns-5.png){: .with-border}

### What do I do next?

If you find that an image in your registry contains vulnerable components, you
can use the linked CVE scan information in each scan report to evaluate the
vulnerability and decide what to do.

If you discover vulnerable components, you should check if there is an updated
version available where the security vulnerability has been addressed. If
necessary, you might contact the component's maintainers to ensure that the
vulnerability is being addressed in an a future version or patch update.

If the vulnerability is in a `base layer` (such as an operating system) you
might not be able to correct the issue in the image. In this case, you might
switch to a different version of the base layer, or you might find an
equivalent, less vulnerable base layer. You might also decide that the
vulnerability or exposure is acceptable.

Address vulnerabilities in your repositories by updating the images to use
updated and corrected versions of vulnerable components, or by using a different
components that provide the same functionality. When you have updated the source
code, run a build to create a new image, tag the image, and push the updated
image to your DTR instance. You can then re-scan the image to confirm that you
have addressed the vulnerabilities.
