diff --git a/Containerfile.slim b/Containerfile.slim
index 65580a0..689e103 100644
--- a/Containerfile.slim
+++ b/Containerfile.slim
@@ -1,18 +1,17 @@
-# FlaskPaste Slim Container Image (Distroless)
+# FlaskPaste Slim Container Image (Alpine)
 # Build: podman build -f Containerfile.slim -t flaskpaste:slim .
 # Run:   podman run -d -p 5000:5000 -v flaskpaste-data:/app/data flaskpaste:slim
 #
-# Distroless: No shell, no package manager, minimal attack surface
-# For debugging, use the standard Containerfile instead
+# Alpine: Minimal base image with musl libc, actively maintained security patches
+# For debugging with more tools, use the standard Containerfile instead
 
-# Stage 1: Build dependencies (identical to standard build)
-FROM python:3.11-slim AS builder
+# Stage 1: Build dependencies
+FROM python:3.11-alpine AS builder
 
 WORKDIR /build
 
-# Install build dependencies
-RUN apt update && apt install -y --no-install-recommends gcc \
-    && apt clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+# Install build dependencies for compiled Python packages
+RUN apk add --no-cache gcc musl-dev libffi-dev
 
 # Create virtual environment and upgrade pip
 RUN python -m venv /opt/venv
@@ -21,29 +20,35 @@ RUN pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip wheel
 
 # Install Python dependencies
 COPY requirements.txt .
-RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt gunicorn \
-    && rm -rf /opt/venv/lib/python*/site-packages/setuptools/_vendor/jaraco.context*.dist-info
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt gunicorn
 
 
-# Stage 2: Distroless runtime
-FROM gcr.io/distroless/python3-debian12:nonroot
+# Stage 2: Alpine runtime (minimal)
+FROM python:3.11-alpine
 
 LABEL maintainer="FlaskPaste"
-LABEL description="Minimal secure pastebin REST API (distroless)"
+LABEL description="Minimal secure pastebin REST API (Alpine)"
+
+# Create non-root user
+RUN addgroup -g 65532 -S flaskpaste && adduser -u 65532 -S -G flaskpaste flaskpaste
+
+# Copy virtual environment from builder
+COPY --from=builder /opt/venv /opt/venv
+ENV PATH="/opt/venv/bin:$PATH"
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Copy virtual environment from builder
-# Note: distroless uses /usr/lib/python3.11 as base, venv provides all deps
-COPY --from=builder /opt/venv/lib/python3.11/site-packages /app/.local/lib/python3.11/site-packages
-
-# Copy application files (owned by nonroot user - uid 65532)
+# Copy application files
 COPY --chown=65532:65532 app/ ./app/
 COPY --chown=65532:65532 wsgi.py .
 COPY --chown=65532:65532 fpaste .
 
+# Create data directory
+RUN mkdir -p /app/data && chown -R flaskpaste:flaskpaste /app
+
+USER flaskpaste
+
 # Environment configuration
-ENV PYTHONPATH="/app/.local/lib/python3.11/site-packages"
 ENV FLASK_ENV=production
 ENV FLASKPASTE_DB=/app/data/pastes.db
 ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
@@ -51,10 +56,7 @@ ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
 
 EXPOSE 5000
 
-# Healthcheck without shell (no || exit 1)
 HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=5s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
-    CMD ["python", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:5000/health')"]
+    CMD python -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:5000/health')" || exit 1
 
-# Run gunicorn directly via Python module
-ENTRYPOINT ["python", "-m", "gunicorn"]
-CMD ["--bind", "0.0.0.0:5000", "--workers", "2", "--access-logfile", "-", "wsgi:application"]
+CMD ["gunicorn", "--bind", "0.0.0.0:5000", "--workers", "2", "--access-logfile", "-", "wsgi:application"]