Podman Desktop OpenShift Local Extension installation fails when GHCR/Quay are accessible only via enterprise registry mirrors

Bug description

Installation of the Red Hat OpenShift Local extension from the Podman Desktop Extensions catalog fails.

Podman Desktop attempts to access upstream registries directly: https://ghcr.io/v2/ https://quay.io/v2/

instead of using configured enterprise registry mirrors.

The extension catalog entry references: ghcr.io/crc-org/crc-extension:2.4.0

During installation, Podman Desktop reports: Unable to find auth info for https://ghcr.io/v2/ GET https://ghcr.io/v2/ 403 Forbidden

Subsequent attempts also reference: https://quay.io/v2/

Operating system

macOS Tahoe 26.6.2 Apple silicon M2

Installation Method

Brew (macOS)

Version

1.29.0

Steps to reproduce

Podman: 6.1.1 Podman Desktop: 1.29.3 Platform: macOS (Apple Silicon)

Configure access to enterprise container registry mirrors for:

GitHub Container Registry (GHCR) Red Hat Quay

Verify the extension image can be pulled successfully through the enterprise mirror: podman pull /crc-org/crc-extension:2.4.0

Verify the OpenShift Local extension dependency image can be pulled successfully through the enterprise mirror: podman pull /redhat-developer/openshift-local-extension:latest

Open Podman Desktop.

Navigate to:

Extensions→ Catalog → Red Hat OpenShift Local

Click Install.

Observe the installation failure: Unable to find auth info for https://ghcr.io/v2/ GET https://ghcr.io/v2/ 403 Forbidden

Relevant log output

The extension install still fails from the Podman Desktop UI with:
Unable to find auth info for https://ghcr.io/v2/
403 Forbidden

Additional context

Additional Observations The extension image was pre-pulled successfully. The extension image was retagged locally using the original GHCR image reference. Registry credentials are visible in Podman Desktop. Installation still fails with direct requests to ghcr.io and quay.io. This suggests the Extension Manager may be bypassing the Podman runtime and performing its own registry discovery/validation.