Sign in to Docker Desktop

Table of contents

Docker recommends signing in with the Sign in option in the top-right corner of the Docker Dasard.

In large enterprises where admin access is restricted, administrators can enforce sign-in.

Benefits of signing in

  • Access your Docker Hub repositories directly from Docker Desktop.

  • Increase your pull rate limit compared to anonymous users. See Usage and limits.

  • Enhance your organization’s security posture for containerized development with Hardened Desktop.

Signing in with Docker Desktop for Linux

Docker Desktop for Linux relies on pass to store credentials in GPG-encrypted files. Before signing in to Docker Desktop with your Docker ID, you must initialize pass. Docker Desktop displays a warning if pass is not configured.

  1. Generate a GPG key. You can initialize pass by using a gpg key. To generate a gpg key, run:

    $ gpg --generate-key

  2. Enter your name and email once prompted.

    Once confirmed, GPG creates a key pair. Look for the pub line that contains your GPG ID, for example:

    ...
pubrsa3072 2022-03-31 [SC] [expires: 2024-03-30]
 3ABCD1234EF56G78
uid          Molly <[email protected]>

  3. Copy the GPG ID and use it to initialize pass

    $ pass init <your_generated_gpg-id_public_key>

    You should see output similar to:

    mkdir: created directory '/home/molly/.password-store/'
Password store initialized for <generated_gpg-id_public_key>

Once you initialize pass, you can sign in and pull your private images. When Docker CLI or Docker Desktop use credentials, a user prompt may pop up for the password you set during the GPG key generation.

$ docker pull molly/privateimage
Using default tag: latest
latest: Pulling from molly/privateimage
3b9cc81c3203: Pull complete 
Digest: sha256:3c6b73ce467f04d4897d7a7439782721fd28ec9bf62ea2ad9e81a5fb7fb3ff96
Status: Downloaded newer image for molly/privateimage:latest
docker.io/molly/privateimage:latest

What's next?