diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index c11a9b7d..4466989d 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ isort==5.12.0
 types-requests==0.1.9
 types-setuptools==57.4.3
 types-psutil==5.8.0
-grpcio-tools==1.43.0
+grpcio-tools==1.53.0
 types-dataclasses==0.6.6
 backoff-stubs~=1.10
 pytest~=7.0.1
diff --git a/granulate_utils/containers/cri.py b/granulate_utils/containers/cri.py
index 1aa9b1a1..5d1dcf1b 100644
--- a/granulate_utils/containers/cri.py
+++ b/granulate_utils/containers/cri.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 # Licensed under the AGPL3 License. See LICENSE.md in the project root for license information.
 #
 import json
+import os
 from typing import List, Optional, Union
 
 import grpc  # type: ignore # no types-grpc sadly
@@ -38,9 +39,10 @@ class CriClient(ContainersClientInterface):
     def __init__(self) -> None:
         self._runtimes = {}
         for rt, path in RUNTIMES:
-            path = "unix://" + ns.resolve_host_root_links(path)
-            if self._is_cri_available(path):
-                self._runtimes[rt] = path
+            if os.path.exists(path):
+                path = "unix://" + ns.resolve_host_root_links(path)
+                if self._is_cri_available(path):
+                    self._runtimes[rt] = path
 
         if not self._runtimes:
             raise CriNotAvailableError(f"CRI is not available at any of {RUNTIMES}")
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index ba4b80fc..e2f14bcf 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,8 @@
 psutil~=5.8.0
 requests~=2.27.1
-grpcio~=1.43.0
+grpcio~=1.53.0
 protobuf~=3.19.4
 docker~=5.0.0
-dataclasses~=0.8; python_version < '3.7'
 typing-extensions>=4.1.0
 pyelftools~=0.28
 packaging~=23.1