diff --git a/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go b/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go
index ee46f47f..d3423638 100644
--- a/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go
+++ b/cmd/skopeo/proxy.go
@@ -75,12 +75,14 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/manifest"
 	ocilayout "github.com/containers/image/v5/oci/layout"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/pkg/blobinfocache"
+	"github.com/containers/image/v5/transports"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/transports/alltransports"
 	"github.com/containers/image/v5/types"
 	dockerdistributionerrcode "github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/errcode"
 	dockerdistributionapi "github.com/docker/distribution/registry/api/v2"
 	"github.com/opencontainers/go-digest"
 	imgspecv1 "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
+	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 )
 
@@ -701,6 +703,17 @@ func (h *proxyHandler) FinishPipe(args []interface{}) (replyBuf, error) {
 	return ret, err
 }
 
+// close releases all resources associated with this proxy backend
+func (h *proxyHandler) close() {
+	for _, image := range h.images {
+		err := image.src.Close()
+		if err != nil {
+			// This shouldn't be fatal
+			logrus.Warnf("Failed to close image %s: %v", transports.ImageName(image.cachedimg.Reference()), err)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 // send writes a reply buffer to the socket
 func (buf replyBuf) send(conn *net.UnixConn, err error) error {
 	replyToSerialize := reply{
@@ -816,6 +829,7 @@ func (opts *proxyOptions) run(args []string, stdout io.Writer) error {
 		images:      make(map[uint32]*openImage),
 		activePipes: make(map[uint32]*activePipe),
 	}
+	defer handler.close()
 
 	// Convert the socket FD passed by client into a net.FileConn
 	fd := os.NewFile(uintptr(opts.sockFd), "sock")