Control user-namespace identity in a bwrap sandbox and prevent nested user namespaces (--unshare-user, --uid/--gid, --userns, --disable-userns)

domain: github.com/containers/bubblewrap · 9 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Documented steps

  1. Requirements / auth: No credentials, but the host must permit unprivileged user namespaces. Setuid installation is deprecated as of bubblewrap 0.11.2 and disables several of these options.
  2. Add `--unshare-user` to create a new user namespace. Use `--unshare-user-try` only when you want bwrap to continue silently on hosts where user namespaces are unavailable.
  3. Set the in-sandbox identity with `--uid UID` and `--gid GID`. Both options require `--unshare-user`, so add it explicitly rather than relying on the `-try` form inside `--unshare-all`.
  4. To run inside a user namespace you prepared elsewhere, pass it as a file descriptor with `--userns FD` instead of creating one. `--userns` is incompatible with `--unshare-user` and is unavailable when bwrap is installed setuid.
  5. To hop into a second namespace after setup completes, add `--userns2 FD`; it only works together with `--userns`.
  6. Block namespace-based escapes by adding `--disable-userns`, which prevents the process in the sandbox from creating further user namespaces so it cannot rearrange the filesystem namespace. It requires `--unshare-user` and is unavailable setuid.
  7. From inside the sandbox, assert the lockdown actually took effect with `--assert-userns-disabled`, which confirms the process has been prevented from creating further user namespaces without taking any other action.
  8. If an external helper must write the uid/gid maps (newuidmap/newgidmap), coordinate with `--userns-block-fd FD`: bwrap waits for data on that FD before initializing the user namespace.
  9. Official documentation: https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/bubblewrap/bwrap.1.en.html | https://github.com/containers/bubblewrap/releases

Known gotchas

Related routes

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.
github.com/containers/bubblewrap · 5 steps · unrated
Sandbox an untrusted binary with bubblewrap (bwrap) using user namespaces, no root required
github.com/containers/bubblewrap · 5 steps · unrated
Run an untrusted binary in a minimal bubblewrap (bwrap) sandbox with a read-only /usr and no host filesystem access
github.com/containers/bubblewrap · 9 steps · unrated

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