diff --git a/CHANGES/2122.bugfix b/CHANGES/2122.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ab8ce4489
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGES/2122.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix an `AttributeError` issue that most commonly appears when running the `container-handle-image-data` management command.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pulp_container/app/models.py b/pulp_container/app/models.py
index 50c32690a..1889410cc 100644
--- a/pulp_container/app/models.py
+++ b/pulp_container/app/models.py
@@ -226,12 +226,11 @@ def init_architecture_and_os(self):
         if self.json_manifest.get("architecture", None) or self.json_manifest.get("os", None):
             self.architecture = self.json_manifest.get("architecture", None)
             self.os = self.json_manifest.get("os", None)
-            return
-
-        config_artifact = self.config_blob._artifacts.get()
-        config_data, _ = get_content_data(config_artifact)
-        self.architecture = config_data.get("architecture", None)
-        self.os = config_data.get("os", None)
+        elif self.config_blob:
+            config_artifact = self.config_blob._artifacts.get()
+            config_data, _ = get_content_data(config_artifact)
+            self.architecture = config_data.get("architecture", None)
+            self.os = config_data.get("os", None)
 
     def init_compressed_image_size(self):
         # manifestv2 schema1 has only blobSum definition for each layer
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 96ee76ddb..e245734e7 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 jsonschema>=4.4,<4.24
 pulpcore>=3.49.0,<3.70
 pyjwt[crypto]>=2.4,<2.10
+pycares<4.9
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