diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index c5e3db6d9..83f0cc0da 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -69,19 +69,20 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       matrix:
         include:
-          # Choose an old release of Ubuntu to avoid glibc issue https://github.com/containerd/containerd/issues/7255
-          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 18.04
+          # Ubuntu 22.04 can't be used until we drop support for binary compatibility with dynamically-linked glibc 2.17 (CentOS 7).
+          # https://github.com/containerd/containerd/issues/7255
+          # https://github.com/containerd/containerd/issues/7961
+          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 20.04
             dockerfile-platform: linux/amd64
-          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 18.04
+          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 20.04
             dockerfile-platform: linux/arm64
-          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 18.04
+          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 20.04
             dockerfile-platform: linux/ppc64le
-          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 18.04
+          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 20.04
             dockerfile-platform: linux/s390x
-          # riscv64 isn't supported by Ubuntu 18.04
-          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 22.04
+          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 20.04
             dockerfile-platform: linux/riscv64
-          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 18.04
+          - dockerfile-ubuntu: 20.04
             dockerfile-platform: windows/amd64
     steps:
       - name: Set RELEASE_VER
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile b/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile
index 8e6a2b7ac..b0ea7fc9f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile
+++ b/.github/workflows/release/Dockerfile
@@ -12,8 +12,8 @@
 #   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 #   limitations under the License.
 
-# UBUNTU_VERSION can be set to 18.04 (bionic), 20.04 (focal), or 22.04 (jammy)
-ARG UBUNTU_VERSION=18.04
+# UBUNTU_VERSION can be set to 18.04 (bionic, DEPRECATED), 20.04 (focal), or 22.04 (jammy)
+ARG UBUNTU_VERSION=20.04
 ARG BASE_IMAGE=ubuntu:${UBUNTU_VERSION}
 ARG GO_VERSION
 ARG GO_IMAGE=golang:${GO_VERSION}
diff --git a/releases/v1.7.0-beta.toml b/releases/v1.7.0-beta.toml
index 124edf7bd..bd47c40a0 100644
--- a/releases/v1.7.0-beta.toml
+++ b/releases/v1.7.0-beta.toml
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ See the changelog for complete list of changes"""
 
 postface = """\
 ### Which file should I download?
-* `containerd-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`:         ✅Recommended. Dynamically linked with glibc 2.27 (Ubuntu 18.04).
+* `containerd-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`:         ✅Recommended. Dynamically linked with glibc 2.31 (Ubuntu 20.04).
 * `containerd-static-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`:  Statically linked. Expected to be used on non-glibc Linux distributions. Not position-independent.
 * `cri-containerd-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`:     (Deprecated)
 * `cri-containerd-cni-<VERSION>-<OS>-<ARCH>.tar.gz`: (Deprecated)