diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.spec.ts b/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.spec.ts
index 56052789fb6f24..6a4f5403f20d3d 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.spec.ts
@@ -182,24 +182,6 @@ kind: ConfigMap
             depName: 'busybox',
             replaceString: 'busybox',
           },
-          {
-            autoReplaceStringTemplate:
-              '{{depName}}{{#if newValue}}:{{newValue}}{{/if}}{{#if newDigest}}@{{newDigest}}{{/if}}',
-            currentDigest: undefined,
-            currentValue: undefined,
-            datasource: 'docker',
-            depName: '{{',
-            replaceString: '{{',
-          },
-          {
-            autoReplaceStringTemplate:
-              '{{depName}}{{#if newValue}}:{{newValue}}{{/if}}{{#if newDigest}}@{{newDigest}}{{/if}}',
-            currentDigest: undefined,
-            currentValue: undefined,
-            datasource: 'docker',
-            depName: '{{',
-            replaceString: '{{',
-          },
         ],
       });
     });
diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.ts b/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.ts
index 5d376539afdfb1..7e9313f441c9f1 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/kubernetes/extract.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,14 @@ export function extractPackageFile(
   return deps.length ? { deps } : null;
 }
 
+// Comes from https://github.com/distribution/reference/blob/v0.6.0/regexp.go
+// Extracted & converted with https://go.dev/play/p/ZwF3vvRD9Rs
+const dockerImageRegexPattern = `((?:(?:(?:[a-zA-Z0-9]|[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])(?:\\.(?:[a-zA-Z0-9]|[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0-9]))*|\\[(?:[a-fA-F0-9:]+)\\])(?::[0-9]+)?/)?[a-z0-9]+(?:(?:[._]|__|[-]+)[a-z0-9]+)*(?:/[a-z0-9]+(?:(?:[._]|__|[-]+)[a-z0-9]+)*)*)(?::([A-Za-z0-9][A-Za-z0-9.-]{0,127}))?(?:@([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9]*(?:[-_+.][A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9]*)*[:][0-9a-fA-F]{32,}))?`;
+
+const k8sImageRegex = regEx(
+  `^\\s*-?\\s*image:\\s*['"]?(${dockerImageRegexPattern})['"]?\\s*`,
+);
+
 function extractImages(
   content: string,
   config: ExtractConfig,
@@ -44,7 +52,7 @@ function extractImages(
   const deps: PackageDependency[] = [];
 
   for (const line of content.split(newlineRegex)) {
-    const match = regEx(/^\s*-?\s*image:\s*['"]?([^\s'"]+)['"]?\s*/).exec(line);
+    const match = k8sImageRegex.exec(line);
     if (match) {
       const currentFrom = match[1];
       const dep = getDep(currentFrom, true, config.registryAliases);
@@ -60,7 +68,7 @@ function extractImages(
     }
   }
 
-  return deps.filter((dep) => !dep.currentValue?.includes('${'));
+  return deps;
 }
 
 function extractApis(