How to use this image

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/<repository>:<tag>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

About this image

SendGrid Python is a library, not a service. This image ships the SendGrid SDK preinstalled into a hardened Python 3.14 runtime, with the venv interpreter as the entry point, so running the image drops you into a Python that can already import sendgrid. There is no server to start and no port to expose.

Verify the SDK is available

$ docker run --rm dhi.io/sendgrid-python:<tag> -c "import sendgrid; print(sendgrid.__version__)"

Run a SendGrid script

The entry point is python3, so you can mount a script and run it directly. SendGrid reads the API key from the SENDGRID_API_KEY environment variable.

$ docker run --rm \
    -e SENDGRID_API_KEY \
    -v "$PWD/send.py:/app/send.py:ro" \
    dhi.io/sendgrid-python:<tag> /app/send.py

A minimal send.py:

import os
from sendgrid import SendGridAPIClient
from sendgrid.helpers.mail import Mail

message = Mail(
    from_email="[email protected]",
    to_emails="[email protected]",
    subject="Sending with SendGrid is Fun",
    plain_text_content="and easy to do anywhere, even with Python",
)

client = SendGridAPIClient(os.environ["SENDGRID_API_KEY"])
response = client.send(message)
print(response.status_code)

Use as a base image

Because the SDK is already present in the default Python environment, you can build your own application on top of this image without a separate pip install step for sendgrid. Use the dev variant when you need a shell or package manager during the build stage, and the non-dev variant for your runtime stage.

The entry point on every variant is python3, so a bare docker run <img>:<tag>-dev starts the interpreter rather than a shell. In a Dockerfile, RUN ignores the entry point, so build stages work normally; for an interactive shell, override the entry point explicitly:

$ docker run --rm -it --entrypoint bash dhi.io/sendgrid-python:<tag>-dev

FROM dhi.io/sendgrid-python:<tag>
WORKDIR /app
COPY app.py .
CMD ["/app/app.py"]

Installing your own dependencies alongside the SDK

The SDK lives in a virtual environment at /usr/lib/sendgrid-python, and to keep the runtime minimal that venv ships without pip. To add your own packages into the same environment, bootstrap pip with ensurepip in a dev build stage, install what you need, then copy the finished venv into a non-dev runtime stage:

FROM dhi.io/sendgrid-python:<tag>-dev AS build
RUN python3 -m ensurepip && \
    python3 -m pip install --no-cache-dir requests==2.32.3

FROM dhi.io/sendgrid-python:<tag>
COPY --from=build /usr/lib/sendgrid-python /usr/lib/sendgrid-python
WORKDIR /app
COPY app.py .
CMD ["/app/app.py"]

Pin the versions you add so they remain reproducible and can be bumped deliberately when a CVE fix is needed.

FIPS variants

FIPS variants (tags containing fips, on the debian-13 line) ship the CMVP-validated OpenSSL FIPS provider and enforce it system-wide via OPENSSL_CONF / OPENSSL_MODULES. Python 3.14 links the system OpenSSL, so the SDK's TLS traffic, including python_http_client's HTTPS calls to the SendGrid API, goes through the FIPS module. The cryptography extension in the venv is built against the same system OpenSSL rather than shipping its own, so the SDK's EventWebhook ECDSA signature helper runs under the FIPS provider as well.

$ docker run --rm dhi.io/sendgrid-python:<tag>-fips -c "import ssl; from cryptography.hazmat.backends.openssl.backend import backend; print(ssl.OPENSSL_VERSION); print(backend.openssl_version_text())"

Both lines print the same OpenSSL version. Non-approved algorithms are rejected in both stacks; for example, hashlib.md5() and cryptography's MD5 hash fail in FIPS variants.

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as the nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the variant name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.

2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.

   Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install packages and dependencies.

3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.

   To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.

4. Install additional packages

   Docker Hardened Images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.

   Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.

   For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to install packages.

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.