diff --git a/api/Dockerfile b/api/Dockerfile
index c66994dda..15bcddf47 100644
--- a/api/Dockerfile
+++ b/api/Dockerfile
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ RUN \
     postgresql-dev \
     python3-dev \
     py3-psycopg2 \
+    py3-cryptography \
     libldap \
     libffi-dev \
     make \
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ RUN \
     ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python
 
 # create virtual env for next stage
-RUN python -m venv /venv
+RUN python -m venv --system-site-packages /venv
 # emulate activation by prefixing PATH
 ENV PATH="/venv/bin:$PATH" VIRTUAL_ENV=/venv
 
@@ -60,6 +61,7 @@ RUN apk add --no-cache \
     libpq \
     libxml2 \
     libxslt \
+    py3-cryptography \
     && \
     ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python
 
diff --git a/api/requirements/base.txt b/api/requirements/base.txt
index b3c6a8a9d..350b2c6b5 100644
--- a/api/requirements/base.txt
+++ b/api/requirements/base.txt
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ channels_redis~=3.3.0
 uvicorn[standard]~=0.14.0
 gunicorn~=20.1.0
 
-cryptography~=3.4.7
+cryptography=>3.3.2
 # requests-http-signature==0.0.3
 # clone until the branch is merged and released upstream
 git+https://github.com/agateblue/requests-http-signature.git@signature-header-support