1SETRESUID(2)               Linux Programmer's Manual              SETRESUID(2)
2
3
4

NAME

6       setresuid, setresgid - set real, effective and saved user or group ID
7

SYNOPSIS

9       #define _GNU_SOURCE         /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
10       #include <unistd.h>
11
12       int setresuid(uid_t ruid, uid_t euid, uid_t suid);
13       int setresgid(gid_t rgid, gid_t egid, gid_t sgid);
14

DESCRIPTION

16       setresuid() sets the real user ID, the effective user ID, and the saved
17       set-user-ID of the calling process.
18
19       An unprivileged process may change its real  UID,  effective  UID,  and
20       saved  set-user-ID,  each  to one of: the current real UID, the current
21       effective UID or the current saved set-user-ID.
22
23       A privileged process (on Linux, one having the  CAP_SETUID  capability)
24       may set its real UID, effective UID, and saved set-user-ID to arbitrary
25       values.
26
27       If one of the arguments equals  -1,  the  corresponding  value  is  not
28       changed.
29
30       Regardless of what changes are made to the real UID, effective UID, and
31       saved set-user-ID, the filesystem UID is always set to the  same  value
32       as the (possibly new) effective UID.
33
34       Completely  analogously,  setresgid() sets the real GID, effective GID,
35       and saved set-group-ID of the calling process (and always modifies  the
36       filesystem  GID  to  be  the  same as the effective GID), with the same
37       restrictions for unprivileged processes.
38

RETURN VALUE

40       On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and  errno  is
41       set appropriately.
42
43       Note:  there  are cases where setresuid() can fail even when the caller
44       is UID 0; it is a grave security error to omit checking for  a  failure
45       return from setresuid().
46

ERRORS

48       EAGAIN The call would change the caller's real UID (i.e., ruid does not
49              match the caller's real UID), but there was a temporary  failure
50              allocating the necessary kernel data structures.
51
52       EAGAIN ruid  does  not  match the caller's real UID and this call would
53              bring the number of processes belonging to the real user ID ruid
54              over the caller's RLIMIT_NPROC resource limit.  Since Linux 3.1,
55              this error case no longer occurs (but robust applications should
56              check  for  this  error);  see  the  description  of  EAGAIN  in
57              execve(2).
58
59       EINVAL One or more of the target user or group IDs is not valid in this
60              user namespace.
61
62       EPERM  The  calling  process is not privileged (did not have the neces‐
63              sary capability in its user namespace) and tried to  change  the
64              IDs to values that are not permitted.  For setresuid(), the nec‐
65              essary capability is CAP_SETUID; for setresgid(), it is CAP_SET‐
66              GID.
67

VERSIONS

69       These calls are available under Linux since Linux 2.1.44.
70

CONFORMING TO

72       These  calls are nonstandard; they also appear on HP-UX and some of the
73       BSDs.
74

NOTES

76       Under HP-UX and FreeBSD, the prototype is found in  <unistd.h>.   Under
77       Linux, the prototype is provided by glibc since version 2.3.2.
78
79       The  original  Linux setresuid() and setresgid() system calls supported
80       only 16-bit user and group IDs.  Subsequently, Linux 2.4  added  setre‐
81       suid32()  and  setresgid32(),  supporting 32-bit IDs.  The glibc setre‐
82       suid() and setresgid() wrapper functions transparently  deal  with  the
83       variations across kernel versions.
84
85   C library/kernel differences
86       At the kernel level, user IDs and group IDs are a per-thread attribute.
87       However, POSIX requires that all threads in a process  share  the  same
88       credentials.   The  NPTL  threading  implementation  handles  the POSIX
89       requirements by providing wrapper  functions  for  the  various  system
90       calls  that  change  process  UIDs  and  GIDs.  These wrapper functions
91       (including those for setresuid() and setresgid()) employ a signal-based
92       technique  to  ensure  that when one thread changes credentials, all of
93       the other threads in the process also change  their  credentials.   For
94       details, see nptl(7).
95

SEE ALSO

97       getresuid(2),   getuid(2),   setfsgid(2),   setfsuid(2),   setreuid(2),
98       setuid(2), capabilities(7), credentials(7), user_namespaces(7)
99

COLOPHON

101       This page is part of release 5.04 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
102       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
103       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
104       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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108Linux                             2017-09-15                      SETRESUID(2)
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