IBM Support

Announcement: Upcoming Changes to the Container Images for IBM WebSphere Liberty and Open Liberty

Flashes (Alerts)


Abstract

Action required for important upcoming changes to the Liberty container images.

Content

As part of our ongoing commitment to improving security, reducing vulnerability exposure, and aligning with container best practices, we are announcing two important updates to the Universal Base Image (UBI) operating system variants used in the official container images for IBM WebSphere Liberty and Open Liberty.

1) Liberty images updating from UBI 9 Minimal to UBI 10 Minimal in 26.0.0.7

Beginning with Liberty 26.0.0.7, container images based on UBI Minimal will update from UBI 9 Minimal to UBI 10 Minimal.

Liberty container images based on UBI Minimal use the suffix '-ubi-minimal'. For example, 'icr.io/appcafe/websphere-liberty:kernel-java21-openj9-ubi-minimal'.

The image tag names of Liberty container images will remain unchanged as part of this update.

Security fixes for operating system packages are often available earlier in UBI 10 Minimal, hence this update will help to reduce the number of reported CVEs in Liberty container images and improves overall security posture.

Liberty releases prior to 26.0.0.7 that were built and published on UBI 9 Minimal will remain on UBI 9 Minimal. For example, Liberty 26.0.0.6, the final release to include UBI 9 Minimal-based images, will continue to use UBI 9 Minimal even after the release of 26.0.0.7. Images for 26.0.0.6 will be refreshed with operating system and Java security updates and will be supported until Liberty 27.0.0.3 is released.

Required Action:

  • Ensure that compatible Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) hosts are used to build and run your Liberty application container images. See RHEL Compatibility Matrix for information.

 

2) Ending publication of Liberty images based on UBI Standard after 26.0.0.12

The final Liberty release that will publish container images built on UBI Standard will be 26.0.0.12.

UBI Standard is commonly referred to simply as UBI. Liberty container images based on UBI Standard use the suffix '-ubi'. For example, 'icr.io/appcafe/websphere-liberty:kernel-java17-openj9-ubi'.

UBI Standard includes additional operating system packages that are not required by Liberty, resulting in larger image size and increased CVE exposure. Liberty container images based on UBI Minimal provide a leaner, more secure alternative, optimized for production workloads.

Liberty 26.0.0.12, the final release to include UBI Standard‑based images, will continue to be refreshed with operating system and Java security updates and will be supported until Liberty 27.0.0.9 is released.

Required Action:

  • If you currently build applications using Liberty container images based on UBI Standard, update your container build process to use Liberty container images based on UBI Minimal. Refer to Container image naming conventions for more information.
  • If your application requires additional operating system packages beyond those included with UBI Minimal, you can install them during the image build process using the microdnf package manager.

Document History:

  1. 07 April 2026: Original Publish
  2. 15 June 2026: Re-publish for awareness

[{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB77","label":"Automation Platform"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Product":{"code":"SSD28V","label":"WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m0z000000boJ7AAI","label":"WebSphere Application Server traditional-All Platforms-\u003EInstall Update and Migration-\u003EWAS traditional-\u003ESystem Requirements"}],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"8.5.5;9.0.0"},{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB77","label":"Automation Platform"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Product":{"code":"SSAW57","label":"WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m0z000000boJ7AAI","label":"WebSphere Application Server traditional-All Platforms-\u003EInstall Update and Migration-\u003EWAS traditional-\u003ESystem Requirements"}],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"8.5.5;9.0.5"},{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB77","label":"Automation Platform"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Product":{"code":"SSEQTP","label":"WebSphere Application Server"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m0z000000boJ7AAI","label":"WebSphere Application Server traditional-All Platforms-\u003EInstall Update and Migration-\u003EWAS traditional-\u003ESystem Requirements"}],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"8.5.5;9.0.5"},{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB77","label":"Automation Platform"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU048","label":"IBM Software"},"Product":{"code":"SS7JFU","label":"WebSphere Application Server - Express"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m0z000000boJ7AAI","label":"WebSphere Application Server traditional-All Platforms-\u003EInstall Update and Migration-\u003EWAS traditional-\u003ESystem Requirements"}],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"8.5.5"}]

Document Information

Modified date:
15 June 2026

UID

ibm17268632

Page Feedback