diff --git a/Documentation/app-container.md b/Documentation/app-container.md
index c4de495949..443bc17757 100644
--- a/Documentation/app-container.md
+++ b/Documentation/app-container.md
@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ To validate that `rkt` successfully implements the ACE part of the spec, use the
 $ sudo rkt --insecure-skip-verify run \
 	--private-net --spawn-metadata-svc \
 	--volume database,kind=host,source=/tmp \
-	https://github.com/appc/spec/releases/download/v0.5.2/ace-validator-main.aci \
-	https://github.com/appc/spec/releases/download/v0.5.2/ace-validator-sidekick.aci
+	https://github.com/appc/spec/releases/download/v0.5.1/ace-validator-main.aci \
+	https://github.com/appc/spec/releases/download/v0.5.1/ace-validator-sidekick.aci
 ```
 
 [appc-repo]: https://github.com/appc/spec/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fa44ba6f09..df26d44eea 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -18,9 +18,9 @@ The CLI for rkt is called `rkt`, and is currently supported on amd64 Linux. A mo
 To install the `rkt` binary, grab the latest release directly from GitHub:
 
 ```
-wget https://github.com/coreos/rkt/releases/download/v0.5.2/rkt-v0.5.2.tar.gz
-tar xzvf rkt-v0.5.2.tar.gz
-cd rkt-v0.5.2
+wget https://github.com/coreos/rkt/releases/download/v0.5.3/rkt-v0.5.3.tar.gz
+tar xzvf rkt-v0.5.3.tar.gz
+cd rkt-v0.5.3
 ./rkt help
 ```
 
diff --git a/cas/cas_test.go b/cas/cas_test.go
index 3ef69ea668..8157bf9d21 100644
--- a/cas/cas_test.go
+++ b/cas/cas_test.go
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ func TestGetImageManifest(t *testing.T) {
 
 	imj := `{
 			"acKind": "ImageManifest",
-			"acVersion": "0.5.2",
+			"acVersion": "0.5.3",
 			"name": "example.com/test01"
 		}`
 
@@ -347,7 +347,7 @@ func TestTreeStore(t *testing.T) {
 	imj := `
 		{
 		    "acKind": "ImageManifest",
-		    "acVersion": "0.5.2",
+		    "acVersion": "0.5.3",
 		    "name": "example.com/test01"
 		}
 	`
diff --git a/cas/tree_test.go b/cas/tree_test.go
index 5c53074792..c75c395477 100644
--- a/cas/tree_test.go
+++ b/cas/tree_test.go
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ func treeStoreDSWriteACI(dir string, ds *Store) (string, error) {
 	imj := `
 		{
 		    "acKind": "ImageManifest",
-		    "acVersion": "0.5.2",
+		    "acVersion": "0.5.3",
 		    "name": "example.com/test01"
 		}
 	`
diff --git a/pkg/aci/aci.go b/pkg/aci/aci.go
index d7c6b919bc..70d7dfa3c0 100644
--- a/pkg/aci/aci.go
+++ b/pkg/aci/aci.go
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ func (aw *imageArchiveWriter) Close() error {
 // NewBasicACI creates a new ACI in the given directory with the given name.
 // Used for testing.
 func NewBasicACI(dir string, name string) (*os.File, error) {
-	manifest := fmt.Sprintf(`{"acKind":"ImageManifest","acVersion":"0.5.2","name":"%s"}`, name)
+	manifest := fmt.Sprintf(`{"acKind":"ImageManifest","acVersion":"0.5.3","name":"%s"}`, name)
 	return NewACI(dir, manifest, nil)
 }
 
diff --git a/rkt/fetch_test.go b/rkt/fetch_test.go
index 0dc9043461..03eff46f4c 100644
--- a/rkt/fetch_test.go
+++ b/rkt/fetch_test.go
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ func TestDownloading(t *testing.T) {
 
 	imj := `{
 			"acKind": "ImageManifest",
-			"acVersion": "0.5.2",
+			"acVersion": "0.5.3",
 			"name": "example.com/test01"
 		}`
 
diff --git a/stage1/rootfs/aggregate/aci-manifest b/stage1/rootfs/aggregate/aci-manifest
index 2174f57d21..d49edc0469 100644
--- a/stage1/rootfs/aggregate/aci-manifest
+++ b/stage1/rootfs/aggregate/aci-manifest
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
     "acKind": "ImageManifest",
-    "acVersion": "0.5.2",
+    "acVersion": "0.5.3",
     "name": "coreos.com/rkt/stage1",
     "labels": [
         {
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index b9f3fc86a0..60803d641a 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@
 
 package version
 
-const Version = "0.5.2+git"
+const Version = "0.5.3"