diff --git a/data/interfaces/appr.py b/data/interfaces/appr.py
index 5d18316ff..dd140a014 100644
--- a/data/interfaces/appr.py
+++ b/data/interfaces/appr.py
@@ -429,6 +429,9 @@ class OCIAppModel(AppRegistryDataInterface):
 
 
 def _strip_sha256_header(digest):
-  return digest.lstrip('sha256:')
+  if digest.startswith('sha256:'):
+    return digest.split('sha256:')[1]
+  return digest
+
 
 oci_app_model = OCIAppModel()
diff --git a/data/interfaces/test/test_appr.py b/data/interfaces/test/test_appr.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e33db96d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/interfaces/test/test_appr.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+import pytest
+from data.interfaces.appr import _strip_sha256_header
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('digest,expected', [
+    ('sha256:251b6897608fb18b8a91ac9abac686e2e95245d5a041f2d1e78fe7a815e6480a', '251b6897608fb18b8a91ac9abac686e2e95245d5a041f2d1e78fe7a815e6480a'),
+    ('251b6897608fb18b8a91ac9abac686e2e95245d5a041f2d1e78fe7a815e6480a', '251b6897608fb18b8a91ac9abac686e2e95245d5a041f2d1e78fe7a815e6480a'),])
+def test_stip_sha256(digest, expected):
+    assert _strip_sha256_header(digest) == expected