Run a systemd service as an ephemeral unprivileged user with DynamicUser and StateDirectory
domain: systemd · 6 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Use DynamicUser=yes to have systemd allocate a UID/GID from the 61184-65519 range at start and release it at stop — no useradd, no leftover account:
[Service]
DynamicUser=yes
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp
Give the service persistent writable storage with StateDirectory=myapp — systemd creates /var/lib/myapp (actually a symlink to /var/lib/private/myapp under DynamicUser) owned by the ephemeral user, and sets $STATE_DIRECTORY in the environment.
Add CacheDirectory=myapp, LogsDirectory=myapp, RuntimeDirectory=myapp the same way for /var/cache, /var/log and /run paths; corresponding env vars are $CACHE_DIRECTORY, $LOGS_DIRECTORY, $RUNTIME_DIRECTORY.
Point the app at those env vars instead of hard-coded paths, e.g. ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp --data-dir=${STATE_DIRECTORY}.
DynamicUser implies ProtectSystem=strict, ProtectHome=read-only, PrivateTmp=yes, RemoveIPC=yes and NoNewPrivileges=yes, so the filesystem is read-only except the granted directories.
Start and verify: `systemctl start myapp && ps -o user:16,cmd -C myapp` shows a user like `myapp` or a numeric dynamic UID; after stop the UID is gone from /etc/passwd lookups (it was never there — it is synthesized via NSS).
Known gotchas
Never chown files to a dynamic UID from outside the service — the same UID may be reassigned to a different service later. Only use StateDirectory-style directories, whose ownership systemd fixes up at each start.
With DynamicUser=yes, StateDirectory data lives under /var/lib/private/myapp with a compatibility symlink at /var/lib/myapp; backup tools following symlinks need access to /var/lib/private (mode 0700).
Binding ports <1024 fails under DynamicUser unless you add AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE or use socket activation.
If the app writes anywhere outside the granted directories it gets EROFS (read-only file system) — add specific ReadWritePaths= only as a last resort.
User=myapp together with DynamicUser=yes makes systemd use that name for the synthesized user; it must not clash with a real account, or the real account is used only if it is in the dynamic UID range, otherwise startup fails.
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