diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index ec777ed04..d07f50bcc 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -93,12 +93,15 @@ RUN \
 RUN apt-get install -y --install-recommends podman containernetworking-plugins uidmap libsemanage-common \
   && printf '[engine]\ncgroup_manager="cgroupfs"\nevents_logger="file"\n' > /etc/containers/containers.conf
 
-# There is a Debian package in the NEW queue currently for dnf-plugins-core
-#  https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/dnf-plugins-core_4.0.21-1~exp1.html
-# Until this is generally available; manually install "dnf download"
-# for the yum-minimal element
+# There is a Debian package for dnf-plugins-core but it breaks and replaces
+# zypper which we also want to install. Prior to dnf-plugins-core existing
+# in Debian we fetched the content we needed from github. Continue doing
+# that but pin the version for compatibility with Debian's dnf.
+# Until Debian fixes its dnf-plugins-core package in bookworm; manually
+# install "dnf download" for the yum-minimal element. Note version 4.4.4
+# is the last version compatible with bookworm's dnf package.
 RUN \
-  git clone https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf-plugins-core \
+  git clone --depth 1 --branch 4.4.4 https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf-plugins-core \
   && mkdir /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dnf-plugins \
   && cp -r dnf-plugins-core/plugins/dnfpluginscore /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages \
   && cp dnf-plugins-core/plugins/download.py /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dnf-plugins \