pip._internal.models ModuleNotFoundError in Official Python Slim Docker Images

[seemendra]

Official Python slim Docker images are shipping with a broken pip installation as of late May / June 2026. Any pip command fails immediately on a fresh pull with no modifications to the image.

Affected Images

• python:3.10-slim-buster
• python:3.11-slim

Reproduce

docker run --rm python:3.10-slim-buster pip install requests
docker run --rm python:3.11-slim pip install requests

No apt installs, no pip upgrades, no Dockerfile changes, fails on a clean pull.

Error

File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pip/_internal/locations/__init__.py", line 9
    from pip._internal.models.scheme import SCHEME_KEYS, Scheme
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pip._internal.models'

Impact

Silent breaking change. Builds working with zero Dockerfile modifications are
Now broken.

Environment

• Docker: 26.x
• Host OS: Linux
• Date observed: June 1, 2026

[yosifkit]

I am unable to replicate the issue: 😕

$ docker run --rm python:3.14-slim pip install requests
Unable to find image 'python:3.14-slim' locally
3.14-slim: Pulling from library/python
b83fa8e4dee3: Pull complete
99500e0cbdb9: Pull complete
dcf23796d1e8: Pull complete
0a3b8ba03e24: Download complete
a01368a2f81f: Download complete
Digest: sha256:c845af9399020c7e562969a13689e929074a10fd057acd1b1fad06a2fb068e97
Status: Downloaded newer image for python:3.14-slim
Collecting requests
  Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.8 kB)
Collecting charset_normalizer<4,>=2 (from requests)
  Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp314-cp314-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.metadata (40 kB)
Collecting idna<4,>=2.5 (from requests)
  Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.1 kB)
Collecting urllib3<3,>=1.26 (from requests)
  Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.9 kB)
Collecting certifi>=2023.5.7 (from requests)
  Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.5 kB)
Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl (73 kB)
Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp314-cp314-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (215 kB)
Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl (65 kB)
Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl (131 kB)
Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl (134 kB)
Installing collected packages: urllib3, idna, charset_normalizer, certifi, requests

Successfully installed certifi-2026.5.20 charset_normalizer-3.4.7 idna-3.18 requests-2.34.2 urllib3-2.7.0
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager, possibly rendering your system unusable. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv. Use the --root-user-action option if you know what you are doing and want to suppress this warning.

[notice] A new release of pip is available: 26.1.1 -> 26.1.2
[notice] To update, run: pip install --upgrade pip
$ docker run --rm python:3.13-slim pip install requests
Unable to find image 'python:3.13-slim' locally
3.13-slim: Pulling from library/python
e4f4b0eb5b0d: Pull complete
db744c23eac5: Pull complete
f3b83f2d9173: Pull complete
1e03019d6a0e: Download complete
a8eba3743ebd: Download complete
Digest: sha256:b04b5d7233d2ad9c379e22ea8927cd1378cd15c60d4ef876c065b25ea8fb3bf3
Status: Downloaded newer image for python:3.13-slim
Collecting requests
  Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.8 kB)
Collecting charset_normalizer<4,>=2 (from requests)
  Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp313-cp313-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.metadata (40 kB)
Collecting idna<4,>=2.5 (from requests)
  Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.1 kB)
Collecting urllib3<3,>=1.26 (from requests)
  Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.9 kB)
Collecting certifi>=2023.5.7 (from requests)
  Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.5 kB)
Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl (73 kB)
Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp313-cp313-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (215 kB)
Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl (65 kB)
Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl (131 kB)
Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl (134 kB)
Installing collected packages: urllib3, idna, charset_normalizer, certifi, requests

Successfully installed certifi-2026.5.20 charset_normalizer-3.4.7 idna-3.18 requests-2.34.2 urllib3-2.7.0
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager, possibly rendering your system unusable. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv. Use the --root-user-action option if you know what you are doing and want to suppress this warning.

[notice] A new release of pip is available: 26.0.1 -> 26.1.2
[notice] To update, run: pip install --upgrade pip
$ docker run --rm python:3.12-slim pip install requests
Unable to find image 'python:3.12-slim' locally
3.12-slim: Pulling from library/python
07342fe545e6: Pull complete
4a9dde5cdde1: Pull complete
e113665b194b: Pull complete
e182f7d16de2: Download complete
3f0547a81222: Download complete
Digest: sha256:090ba77e2958f6af52a5341f788b50b032dd4ca28377d2893dcf1ecbdfdfe203
Status: Downloaded newer image for python:3.12-slim
Collecting requests
  Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.8 kB)
Collecting charset_normalizer<4,>=2 (from requests)
  Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp312-cp312-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.metadata (40 kB)
Collecting idna<4,>=2.5 (from requests)
  Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.1 kB)
Collecting urllib3<3,>=1.26 (from requests)
  Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.9 kB)
Collecting certifi>=2023.5.7 (from requests)
  Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.5 kB)
Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl (73 kB)
Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl (134 kB)
Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp312-cp312-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (216 kB)
Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl (65 kB)
Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl (131 kB)
Installing collected packages: urllib3, idna, charset_normalizer, certifi, requests
Successfully installed certifi-2026.5.20 charset_normalizer-3.4.7 idna-3.18 requests-2.34.2 urllib3-2.7.0
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager, possibly rendering your system unusable. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv. Use the --root-user-action option if you know what you are doing and want to suppress this warning.

[notice] A new release of pip is available: 25.0.1 -> 26.1.2
[notice] To update, run: pip install --upgrade pip
$ docker run --rm python:3.11-slim pip install requests
Unable to find image 'python:3.11-slim' locally
3.11-slim: Pulling from library/python
45006ceeeea9: Pull complete
8649771fee17: Pull complete
797d495f2c68: Pull complete
45ae8a1a03e0: Download complete
f2d6706dc1f5: Download complete
Digest: sha256:a3ab0b966bc4e91546a033e22093cb840908979487a9fc0e6e38295747e49ac0
Status: Downloaded newer image for python:3.11-slim
Collecting requests
  Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (4.8 kB)
Collecting charset_normalizer<4,>=2 (from requests)
  Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.metadata (40 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 40.9/40.9 kB 2.0 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Collecting idna<4,>=2.5 (from requests)
  Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.1 kB)
Collecting urllib3<3,>=1.26 (from requests)
  Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (6.9 kB)
Collecting certifi>=2023.5.7 (from requests)
  Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.5 kB)
Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl (73 kB)
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 73.1/73.1 kB 8.3 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl (134 kB)
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 134.1/134.1 kB 16.6 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (214 kB)
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 214.1/214.1 kB 29.6 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl (65 kB)
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 65.5/65.5 kB 12.3 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl (131 kB)
   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 131.1/131.1 kB 24.0 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Installing collected packages: urllib3, idna, charset_normalizer, certifi, requests
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv
Successfully installed certifi-2026.5.20 charset_normalizer-3.4.7 idna-3.18 requests-2.34.2 urllib3-2.7.0

[notice] A new release of pip is available: 24.0 -> 26.1.2
[notice] To update, run: pip install --upgrade pip
$ docker run --rm python:3.10-slim pip install requests
Unable to find image 'python:3.10-slim' locally
3.10-slim: Pulling from library/python
d356f48d59f2: Download complete
13f935cb8f8b: Download complete
Digest: sha256:70f65c721aaddfb22b20ed6ec12606c59d9592493c5fcb6639f3d0e8ba3fbc10
Status: Downloaded newer image for python:3.10-slim
Collecting requests
  Downloading requests-2.34.2-py3-none-any.whl (73 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 73.1/73.1 kB 4.3 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Collecting certifi>=2023.5.7
  Downloading certifi-2026.5.20-py3-none-any.whl (134 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 134.1/134.1 kB 8.7 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Collecting charset_normalizer<4,>=2
  Downloading charset_normalizer-3.4.7-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_x86_64.manylinux_2_17_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (216 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 216.9/216.9 kB 25.3 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Collecting urllib3<3,>=1.26
  Downloading urllib3-2.7.0-py3-none-any.whl (131 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 131.1/131.1 kB 26.7 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Collecting idna<4,>=2.5
  Downloading idna-3.18-py3-none-any.whl (65 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 65.5/65.5 kB 13.1 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Installing collected packages: urllib3, idna, charset_normalizer, certifi, requests
Successfully installed certifi-2026.5.20 charset_normalizer-3.4.7 idna-3.18 requests-2.34.2 urllib3-2.7.0
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv

[notice] A new release of pip is available: 23.0.1 -> 26.1.2
[notice] To update, run: pip install --upgrade pip

$ docker version
Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           29.5.2
 API version:       1.54
 Go version:        go1.26.3
 Git commit:        79eb04c
 Built:             Wed May 20 14:38:13 2026
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          29.5.2
  API version:      1.54 (minimum version 1.40)
  Go version:       go1.26.3
  Git commit:       568f755
  Built:            Wed May 20 14:38:13 2026
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.2.4
  GitCommit:        193637f7ee8ae5f5aa5248f49e7baa3e6164966e
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.5
  GitCommit:        v1.3.5-0-g488fc13e
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0