Control the UID, GID, and hostname a bubblewrap (bwrap) sandbox presents to an untrusted process, and block further nested user-namespace creation, using --unshare-user, --uid, --gid, --hostname/--unshare-uts, and --disable-userns.
domain: github.com/containers/bubblewrap · 5 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Create a new user namespace and remap identity inside it: `bwrap --unshare-user --uid 1000 --gid 1000 --ro-bind /usr /usr --proc /proc --dev /dev COMMAND`. Per bwrap.xml (https://raw.githubusercontent.com/containers/bubblewrap/main/bwrap.xml), '--uid UID: Use a custom user id in the sandbox (requires --unshare-user)'; the same requirement applies to `--gid`.
Give the sandbox its own hostname isolated from the host: `bwrap --unshare-uts --hostname sandboxed --unshare-user --ro-bind /usr /usr --proc /proc --dev /dev COMMAND`. bwrap.xml: '--hostname HOSTNAME: Use a custom hostname in the sandbox (requires --unshare-uts).'
Block the sandboxed process from creating further nested user namespaces (closing off a common sandbox-escape widening technique): `bwrap --unshare-user --disable-userns --ro-bind /usr /usr --proc /proc --dev /dev COMMAND`. bwrap.xml: this 'requires --unshare-user' and works by 'setting the user.max_user_namespaces sysctl to 1, and then entering a nested user namespace which is unable to raise that limit in the outer namespace.'
When accepting an externally-prepared namespace via `--userns`, confirm the restriction is actually in place with `--assert-userns-disabled`, which bwrap.xml describes as confirming the process 'has been prevented from creating further user namespaces... without taking any particular action to prevent that.'
Verify identity inside the sandbox: `bwrap --unshare-user --uid 1000 --gid 1000 --ro-bind /usr /usr --proc /proc --dev /dev id` and confirm it reports `uid=1000 gid=1000`, distinct from the invoking host user.
Known gotchas
`--uid`, `--gid`, and `--hostname` each hard-require their corresponding unshare option (`--unshare-user` or `--unshare-uts`); bwrap.xml states this as a requirement, and omitting it is an error condition rather than being silently ignored.
`--disable-userns` only restricts creation of *further* user namespaces from inside the sandbox — it does not itself create the outer user namespace bwrap needs to run unprivileged, which still requires `--unshare-user`.
bwrap.xml's Description section notes 'the user namespace is required if bwrap is not run as root,' so on a system without unprivileged user namespace support, `--unshare-user` can fail outright; use `--unshare-user-try` to skip it gracefully instead of hard-failing.
The current README (main branch) states bubblewrap's historical setuid mode 'has been removed,' implying `--unshare-user` (unprivileged user namespaces) is now the only supported path to a custom uid/gid mapping — verify this against the specific bubblewrap version/distro package in use, since NEWS.md's 0.11.2 entry still discusses setuid-mode behavior.
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