diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile.synthetic_network.build b/docker/Dockerfile.synthetic_network.build
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0486649211
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile.synthetic_network.build
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+FROM node:20.3.0-bookworm
+
+# Rust nightly
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl build-essential
+RUN curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs \
+    | sh -s -- --default-toolchain nightly-2022-10-30 -y
+ENV PATH=${PATH}:/root/.cargo/bin
+
+# Add and build rush (synthetic network backend / userspace proxy)
+ADD rush /opt/src/rush
+WORKDIR /opt/src/rush
+RUN cargo +nightly-2022-10-30 build --release
+RUN mkdir -p /opt/lib/ && cp /opt/src/rush/target/release/rush /opt/lib/rush
+
+FROM node:20.3.0-bookworm
+
+# Linux networking tools
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
+    iproute2 ethtool iputils-ping iperf3 python3 lsof tcpdump net-tools
+
+# TigerVNC and ratposion
+# build with `--build-arg VNC=true`
+# (you can run for example:
+#    /opt/lib/run-in-vnc.sh chromium --disable-gpu --no-sandbox
+#  to have a VNC server with chromium listening on port 5901)
+ADD run-in-vnc.sh /opt/lib/
+ARG VNC
+RUN if [ -n "$VNC" ] ; then apt-get install -y tigervnc-standalone-server ratpoison ; else echo "No VNC for you" ; fi
+
+# Copy rush
+COPY --from=0 /opt/lib/rush /opt/lib/rush
+
+# Add frontend (synthetic network web UI)
+ADD frontend /opt/lib/frontend
+
+# Entrypoint / test setup
+ADD setup.sh /opt/lib/
+WORKDIR /opt/lib
+CMD ["/opt/lib/setup.sh"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scripts/synthetic-network/build_synthetic-network.sh b/scripts/synthetic-network/build_synthetic-network.sh
index 7f15995ccd..26146251a7 100755
--- a/scripts/synthetic-network/build_synthetic-network.sh
+++ b/scripts/synthetic-network/build_synthetic-network.sh
@@ -11,24 +11,10 @@ if [[ "$UPDATE" = true ]]; then
     git submodule update --remote
 fi
 
-pushd .
-cd scripts/synthetic-network/vendor/synthetic-network
-
-# this is a dirty-fix for the outdated version of node image used by the
-# synthetic-network's Dockerfile
-# TODO remove it after this push-request is merged into synthetic-network: https://github.com/daily-co/synthetic-network/pull/14
-docker pull node:20.3.0
-docker tag node:20.3.0 node:12.20.2
-
-log "building base docker image for synthetic-network with support for synthetic-network"
-docker build --tag syntheticnet --file Dockerfile .
-
-popd
+log "building docker image for synthetic-network"
+docker build --tag syntheticnet --file docker/Dockerfile.synthetic_network.build scripts/synthetic-network/vendor/synthetic-network
 
 log "building docker image for aleph-node that supports synthetic-network"
-docker build -t aleph-node:syntheticnet -f docker/Dockerfile.synthetic_network .
-
-# clean previously tagged image
-docker image rm node:12.20.2
+docker build --tag aleph-node:syntheticnet --file docker/Dockerfile.synthetic_network .
 
 exit 0