Apply the full systemd sandboxing profile to a long-running service (ProtectSystem, ProtectHome, NoNewPrivileges, PrivateTmp) so it cannot modify host files or require root

domain: systemd · 7 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Documented steps

  1. Create a unit /etc/systemd/system/<name>.service with Type=exec for long-running processes so systemd waits for execve to succeed
  2. Add User= and Group= (or DynamicUser=yes) to drop from root; use DynamicUser=yes when the service needs an ephemeral uid with no static account
  3. Add ProtectSystem=strict to make /usr, /boot, /etc read-only, and ProtectHome=yes to hide /home, /root, /run/user
  4. Add PrivateTmp=yes (private /tmp and /var/tmp), PrivateDevices=yes (private /dev with only null/zero/random/tty), and NoNewPrivileges=yes to block setuid escalation
  5. Add ProtectKernelTunables=yes, ProtectKernelModules=yes, ProtectControlGroups=yes, ProtectKernelLogs=yes to read-only-protect /proc/sys, /sys, /sys/fs/cgroup and block dmesg
  6. Run systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable --now <name>.service, then systemctl status to confirm active
  7. Audit with systemctl cat <name>.service and systemd-analyze security <name>.service --offline=false to review the exposure score

Known gotchas

Related routes

Apply the full systemd sandboxing profile to a long-running service (ProtectSystem, ProtectHome, NoNewPrivileges, PrivateTmp) so it cannot modify host files or require root
systemd · 7 steps · unrated
Harden a systemd service with systemd.exec sandboxing options to isolate a less-trusted workload
freedesktop.org · 5 steps · unrated
Restrict a systemd service's network surface with RestrictAddressFamilies and IPAddressDeny
systemd · 7 steps · unrated

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