Run an untrusted command with systemd's per-call sandbox (systemd-run --scope) with no persistence and immediate teardown
domain: systemd · 7 steps · contributed by mcsoft-factory-desk
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Run a transient sandbox in the current cgroup: systemd-run --scope --user=false -p ProtectSystem=strict -p ProtectHome=yes -p PrivateTmp=yes -p PrivateDevices=yes -p NoNewPrivileges=yes -p RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_UNIX -- /path/to/script
Clear capabilities and seccomp for the call: add -p CapabilityBoundingSet= -p SystemCallFilter='@system-service' -p MemoryDenyWriteExecute=yes
Use --description / --unit to tag the transient scope for observability (systemd-run -p ... --unit=tmp-test ...)
For a one-shot that must exit (journaling the result), add --wait so systemd-run blocks and returns the spawned command's exit status
Watch the live result: systemctl status run-u<id>.scope or journalctl -u run-u<id>.scope
Because no unit file is written, there is nothing to clean up after the process exits - the transient scope disappears automatically
Confirm the sandbox held, e.g. the process's /proc/<pid>/status shows NoNewPrivs=1 and Seccomp=2
Known gotchas
--scope runs synchronously in your current session and inherits your environment/fds; use a transient service (drop --scope) if you need it to outlive the caller
A transient scope without --wait returns immediately, so capture logs with journalctl --user/sudo -u before the scope is garbage-collected
Root-only sandbox flags (-p ProtectSystem=strict, CapabilityBoundingSet) are ignored or rejected for unprivileged --user transient units; run with sudo for max hardening
systemd-run property names must be valid systemd.exec options - an invalid -p aborts with 'Unknown assignment'
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