Container Image SBOM and Vulnerability Scanner

Scan public container images straight from their registry and get two things back for each image: a software bill of materials (SBOM) in CycloneDX or SPDX format, and a list of known vulnerabilities found in the packages inside the image. No Docker daemon is needed and no image is run. The Actor reads the image layers over the registry API, identifies the operating system and language packages, and matches them against a vulnerability database that is built into the Actor.

Results are decision support, not a security guarantee. Read the limitations below before you act on them.

What does it do?

For every image reference you give, the Actor:

1. Resolves the tag to an exact image digest (for the platform you choose) and checks the image size.
2. Reads the image from the registry anonymously and builds an SBOM of every operating system package (apk, deb, rpm) and language package it can identify (for example npm, PyPI, Maven, Go, Cargo, RubyGems).
3. In full mode, matches those packages against the vulnerability database and returns each finding with its identifier, severity, package, installed version and fixed version.
4. Saves the SBOM file in the run's key-value store and returns a download link.
5. Tells you when the vulnerability database was built, so you can judge how current the result is.

The scanner is Trivy 0.75.0 (Apache-2.0), built from source for this Actor. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Aqua Security.

Who is it for?

• Developers and DevOps teams who want a quick check of a base image or a third-party image before they use it.
• Security and compliance teams who need an SBOM file for an image they do not build themselves.
• Anyone who wants to run the same scan from a script, a schedule or an integration without installing a scanner.

Supported registries

Public images on Docker Hub (docker.io), GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io), Quay (quay.io) and Amazon ECR Public (public.ecr.aws). Images are pulled anonymously. Private images and registry credentials are not supported in this version, and credentials in an image reference are rejected.

Input

Field	Meaning
Image references	Up to 20 images as name:tag or name@sha256:digest, for example alpine:3.19, ghcr.io/org/app:1.2, quay.io/org/app:latest, public.ecr.aws/docker/library/alpine:3.19.
Mode	full (SBOM and vulnerabilities) or sbom-only.
Minimum severity to list	all, low, medium, high or critical. Summary counts always cover every severity.
Only list vulnerabilities with a fix	Leaves out findings that have no fixed version yet. Summary counts still include them.
SBOM format	CycloneDX JSON or SPDX JSON.
Platform	linux/amd64 or linux/arm64, used when an image is published for several architectures.
Maximum packages per image	Safety limit, default 3000. An image above the limit is reported as an error and is not charged.

Example input:

{
  "images": ["public.ecr.aws/docker/library/alpine:3.19"],
  "mode": "full",
  "minSeverity": "all",
  "sbomFormat": "cyclonedx"
}

Output

One dataset item per image, plus a SUMMARY record and the SBOM files in the key-value store. Main fields: image, status, digest, os, packageCount, packageTypes, vulnerabilities[] (id, severity, package, installedVersion, fixedVersion, status, packageType, purl, cvssScore, title, url, source), summary (counts by severity), sbomKey, sbomUrl, dbBuildDate, toolVersions, notes.

Sample (shortened) result for alpine:3.19:

{
  "image": "alpine:3.19",
  "status": "ok",
  "imageReference": "docker.io/library/alpine:3.19",
  "digest": "sha256:b58899f069c47216f6002a6850143dc6fae0d35eb8b0df9300bbe6327b9c2171",
  "os": "alpine 3.19.9",
  "osEndOfLife": true,
  "packageCount": 15,
  "vulnerabilities": [
    {
      "id": "CVE-2026-40200",
      "severity": "high",
      "package": "musl",
      "installedVersion": "1.2.4_git20230717-r5",
      "fixedVersion": "1.2.4_git20230717-r6",
      "status": "fixed",
      "cvssScore": 7.8
    }
  ],
  "summary": { "critical": 0, "high": 2, "medium": 5, "low": 3, "unknown": 0, "total": 10, "withFix": 10 },
  "sbomFormat": "CycloneDX 1.7",
  "sbomUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/sbom_docker.io_library_alpine_3.19.cdx.json?signature=...",
  "dbBuildDate": "2026-10-21T19:18:22.876313144Z",
  "toolVersions": { "trivy": "0.75.0", "actor": "1.0.0" }
}

status is ok for a scanned image, no-packages when the image contains no packages the scanner can identify (for example an empty scratch image), and error when the image could not be scanned. The reason is in errorCode and errorMessage. Error codes include RATE_LIMITED, NOT_PUBLIC, IMAGE_NOT_FOUND, UNSUPPORTED_REGISTRY, INVALID_REFERENCE, PLATFORM_NOT_AVAILABLE, MAX_PACKAGES_EXCEEDED, IMAGE_TOO_LARGE and SCAN_TIMEOUT.

The SBOM link is a signed link to the file in the run's key-value store. It works for as long as Apify keeps that run's storage.

Pricing

This Actor uses pay per event. You are charged once per image that is scanned successfully, and nothing for images that fail.

Event	Price	When it is charged
image-scan	$0.10	One image scanned in full mode (SBOM and vulnerabilities).
sbom-only	$0.04	One image scanned in SBOM-only mode.

Not charged: images that return an error (rate limited, private, not found, too large, over your package limit, timeout), images with no identifiable packages, and invalid input. Apify platform usage is covered by the Actor owner.

How current is the vulnerability data?

The vulnerability database and the Java index database are downloaded when the Actor is built and are stored inside the Actor image. Every full-scan result includes dbBuildDate, the build time of the database that was used, and the result notes warn when that date is more than 3 days old. The Actor is meant to be rebuilt daily to pick up a new database. If dbBuildDate looks old, say so in the Issues tab.

Data sources and licences

• Scanner: Trivy by Aqua Security, Apache-2.0. The licence texts of Trivy and the Go modules it contains are kept in the Actor source under licenses/.
• Vulnerability data: the Trivy vulnerability database (aquasecurity/trivy-db) and Java index database (aquasecurity/trivy-java-db), published by Aqua Security and documented by them for offline use and mirroring. They combine advisory data from sources such as the National Vulnerability Database, the GitHub Advisory Database and distribution security trackers (Alpine, Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat and others), each under its own terms. The Actor returns advisory identifiers, severities, versions and links only.
• Registries: Docker Hub, GitHub Container Registry, Quay and Amazon ECR Public, accessed anonymously through their public registry APIs with a descriptive User-Agent. Names of these products are used only to describe what the Actor reads. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Docker, GitHub, Red Hat, Amazon or Aqua Security.

FAQ

Why did my Docker Hub image fail with RATE_LIMITED? Docker Hub limits anonymous pulls per IP address, and Apify runs share IP addresses. When Docker Hub answers with HTTP 429 the Actor stops asking Docker Hub for the rest of the run, reports RATE_LIMITED with an explanation, and does not charge. Try again later, or use the same image from another registry, for example public.ecr.aws/docker/library/alpine:3.19. The other registries have their own limits, and the same handling applies to them.

Can I scan a private image? No. This version only reads public images and refuses credentials.

Does it run the image? No. It only downloads layers and reads package metadata files.

Why does an image show no vulnerabilities? Either nothing known matches its packages in the database, or the operating system is not supported for matching. Unsupported operating systems (CentOS Stream is one example) still get a complete package list, and a note tells you that only language packages were matched.

Why are there many findings with no fixed version? The database includes advisories that the distribution has not fixed yet. Use "Only list vulnerabilities with a fix" if you want to see just the actionable ones.

What is the largest image I can scan? Images whose layers total more than 1.5 GB compressed are refused. Each image has a 4 minute time limit.

Limitations

• Results are decision support, not a security guarantee. The scan lists known vulnerabilities that match the packages the scanner could identify. It can miss problems (unknown flaws, software copied into the image without a package manager entry, vendor-specific patches) and can list problems that do not affect how you use the image.
• Only packages are checked. Secrets, misconfigurations and license problems are not scanned.
• Public images on four registries only, platforms linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 only.
• Images from end-of-life operating systems may have incomplete vulnerability data, because their vendors no longer publish fixes. Results say so in notes.
• The vulnerability database is as current as its build date. Newer advisories are not included.
• At most 20 images per run, 1.5 GB compressed per image, 4 minutes per image.

Support

Questions, bug reports or feature requests: open an issue in the Issues tab of this Actor. Please include the run ID and the image reference.