diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 81f607d7a7971d6fc26d7bf9cf7bef6a998e4ae4..52b28800ca6d67aefe69a71ec12574cead1cb73c 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@ LABEL name="LIGO GraceDB Django application" \
 ARG SETTINGS_MODULE="config.settings.container.dev"
 
 COPY docker/SWITCHaai-swdistrib.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d
+COPY docker/backports.pref /etc/apt/preferences.d
 RUN echo 'deb http://pkg.switch.ch/switchaai/debian stretch main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/shibboleth.list
+RUN echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list
 RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | bash -
 RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get install --install-recommends --assume-yes \
diff --git a/docker/backports.pref b/docker/backports.pref
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fe3ca2f9296b59d2ee27684416660466813b3dba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/backports.pref
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Explanation: shibboleth 3.0 dependencies
+Package: init-system-helpers libxerces-c3.2
+Pin: release a=stretch-backports
+Pin-Priority: 500