1USER_NAMESPACES(7)         Linux Programmer's Manual        USER_NAMESPACES(7)
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NAME

6       user_namespaces - overview of Linux user namespaces
7

DESCRIPTION

9       For an overview of namespaces, see namespaces(7).
10
11       User namespaces isolate security-related identifiers and attributes, in
12       particular, user IDs and  group  IDs  (see  credentials(7)),  the  root
13       directory,  keys  (see  keyrings(7)),  and  capabilities (see capabili‐
14       ties(7)).  A process's user and group IDs can be different  inside  and
15       outside  a  user namespace.  In particular, a process can have a normal
16       unprivileged user ID outside a user namespace while at  the  same  time
17       having a user ID of 0 inside the namespace; in other words, the process
18       has full privileges for operations inside the user  namespace,  but  is
19       unprivileged for operations outside the namespace.
20
21   Nested namespaces, namespace membership
22       User  namespaces can be nested; that is, each user namespace—except the
23       initial ("root") namespace—has a parent user namespace,  and  can  have
24       zero  or  more child user namespaces.  The parent user namespace is the
25       user namespace of the process that creates the  user  namespace  via  a
26       call to unshare(2) or clone(2) with the CLONE_NEWUSER flag.
27
28       The  kernel imposes (since version 3.11) a limit of 32 nested levels of
29       user namespaces.  Calls to unshare(2) or clone(2) that would cause this
30       limit to be exceeded fail with the error EUSERS.
31
32       Each process is a member of exactly one user namespace.  A process cre‐
33       ated via fork(2) or clone(2) without the CLONE_NEWUSER flag is a member
34       of  the  same  user namespace as its parent.  A single-threaded process
35       can  join  another  user  namespace  with  setns(2)  if  it   has   the
36       CAP_SYS_ADMIN  in that namespace; upon doing so, it gains a full set of
37       capabilities in that namespace.
38
39       A call to clone(2) or unshare(2) with the CLONE_NEWUSER flag makes  the
40       new  child process (for clone(2)) or the caller (for unshare(2)) a mem‐
41       ber of the new user namespace created by the call.
42
43       The NS_GET_PARENT ioctl(2)  operation  can  be  used  to  discover  the
44       parental relationship between user namespaces; see ioctl_ns(2).
45
46   Capabilities
47       The  child  process  created  by  clone(2)  with the CLONE_NEWUSER flag
48       starts out with a complete set of capabilities in the new  user  names‐
49       pace.   Likewise,  a  process  that  creates a new user namespace using
50       unshare(2) or joins an existing user namespace using setns(2)  gains  a
51       full  set  of  capabilities in that namespace.  On the other hand, that
52       process has no capabilities in the parent (in the case of clone(2))  or
53       previous  (in the case of unshare(2) and setns(2)) user namespace, even
54       if the new namespace is created or joined by the  root  user  (i.e.,  a
55       process with user ID 0 in the root namespace).
56
57       Note that a call to execve(2) will cause a process's capabilities to be
58       recalculated in the usual  way  (see  capabilities(7)).   Consequently,
59       unless the process has a user ID of 0 within the namespace, or the exe‐
60       cutable file has a nonempty inheritable capabilities mask, the  process
61       will  lose  all  capabilities.  See the discussion of user and group ID
62       mappings, below.
63
64       A call to clone(2), unshare(2), or  setns(2)  using  the  CLONE_NEWUSER
65       flag sets the "securebits" flags (see capabilities(7)) to their default
66       values (all flags disabled) in the child (for clone(2)) or caller  (for
67       unshare(2),  or  setns(2)).  Note that because the caller no longer has
68       capabilities in its original user namespace after a call  to  setns(2),
69       it  is not possible for a process to reset its "securebits" flags while
70       retaining its user namespace membership by using  a  pair  of  setns(2)
71       calls to move to another user namespace and then return to its original
72       user namespace.
73
74       The rules for determining whether or not a process has a capability  in
75       a particular user namespace are as follows:
76
77       1. A process has a capability inside a user namespace if it is a member
78          of that namespace and it has the capability in its  effective  capa‐
79          bility  set.  A process can gain capabilities in its effective capa‐
80          bility set in various ways.  For example, it may execute a set-user-
81          ID  program  or an executable with associated file capabilities.  In
82          addition,  a  process  may  gain  capabilities  via  the  effect  of
83          clone(2), unshare(2), or setns(2), as already described.
84
85       2. If  a process has a capability in a user namespace, then it has that
86          capability in all child (and further removed descendant)  namespaces
87          as well.
88
89       3. When  a  user namespace is created, the kernel records the effective
90          user ID of the creating process as being the "owner" of  the  names‐
91          pace.   A  process  that resides in the parent of the user namespace
92          and whose effective user ID matches the owner of the  namespace  has
93          all  capabilities in the namespace.  By virtue of the previous rule,
94          this means that the process has  all  capabilities  in  all  further
95          removed  descendant  user  namespaces as well.  The NS_GET_OWNER_UID
96          ioctl(2) operation can be used to discover the user ID of the  owner
97          of the namespace; see ioctl_ns(2).
98
99   Effect of capabilities within a user namespace
100       Having  a  capability inside a user namespace permits a process to per‐
101       form operations (that require privilege) only on resources governed  by
102       that  namespace.   In other words, having a capability in a user names‐
103       pace permits a process to perform privileged  operations  on  resources
104       that  are  governed  by  (nonuser)  namespaces associated with the user
105       namespace (see the next subsection).
106
107       On the other hand, there are many  privileged  operations  that  affect
108       resources that are not associated with any namespace type, for example,
109       changing the system time (governed by CAP_SYS_TIME), loading  a  kernel
110       module (governed by CAP_SYS_MODULE), and creating a device (governed by
111       CAP_MKNOD).  Only a process with privileges in the initial user  names‐
112       pace can perform such operations.
113
114       Holding  CAP_SYS_ADMIN  within  the  user  namespace  associated with a
115       process's mount namespace allows that process to create bind mounts and
116       mount the following types of filesystems:
117
118           * /proc (since Linux 3.8)
119           * /sys (since Linux 3.8)
120           * devpts (since Linux 3.9)
121           * tmpfs(5) (since Linux 3.9)
122           * ramfs (since Linux 3.9)
123           * mqueue (since Linux 3.9)
124           * bpf (since Linux 4.4)
125
126       Holding  CAP_SYS_ADMIN  within  the  user  namespace  associated with a
127       process's cgroup namespace allows (since Linux 4.6) that process to the
128       mount  cgroup  version  2 filesystem and cgroup version 1 named hierar‐
129       chies (i.e., cgroup filesystems mounted with the "none,name=" option).
130
131       Holding CAP_SYS_ADMIN within  the  user  namespace  associated  with  a
132       process's  PID namespace allows (since Linux 3.8) that process to mount
133       /proc filesystems.
134
135       Note however, that mounting block-based filesystems can be done only by
136       a process that holds CAP_SYS_ADMIN in the initial user namespace.
137
138   Interaction of user namespaces and other types of namespaces
139       Starting  in  Linux  3.8, unprivileged processes can create user names‐
140       paces, and other the other types of namespaces can be created with just
141       the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability in the caller's user namespace.
142
143       When a non-user-namespace is created, it is owned by the user namespace
144       in which the creating process was a member at the time of the  creation
145       of  the namespace.  Actions on the non-user-namespace require capabili‐
146       ties in the corresponding user namespace.
147
148       If CLONE_NEWUSER is specified along with other CLONE_NEW*  flags  in  a
149       single clone(2) or unshare(2) call, the user namespace is guaranteed to
150       be created first, giving the child (clone(2))  or  caller  (unshare(2))
151       privileges over the remaining namespaces created by the call.  Thus, it
152       is possible for an unprivileged caller to specify this  combination  of
153       flags.
154
155       When  a  new  namespace  (other  than  a user namespace) is created via
156       clone(2) or unshare(2), the kernel records the user  namespace  of  the
157       creating process against the new namespace.  (This association can't be
158       changed.)  When a process in the new  namespace  subsequently  performs
159       privileged  operations that operate on global resources isolated by the
160       namespace,  the  permission  checks  are  performed  according  to  the
161       process's capabilities in the user namespace that the kernel associated
162       with the new namespace.  For example, suppose that a  process  attempts
163       to change the hostname (sethostname(2)), a resource governed by the UTS
164       namespace.  In this case, the kernel will determine which  user  names‐
165       pace  is associated with the process's UTS namespace, and check whether
166       the process has the required capability (CAP_SYS_ADMIN)  in  that  user
167       namespace.
168
169       The  NS_GET_USERNS  ioctl(2) operation can be used to discover the user
170       namespace  with  which  a  non-user  namespace   is   associated;   see
171       ioctl_ns(2).
172
173   User and group ID mappings: uid_map and gid_map
174       When  a  user  namespace is created, it starts out without a mapping of
175       user  IDs  (group   IDs)   to   the   parent   user   namespace.    The
176       /proc/[pid]/uid_map  and  /proc/[pid]/gid_map  files  (available  since
177       Linux 3.5) expose the mappings for user and group IDs inside  the  user
178       namespace  for  the  process  pid.  These files can be read to view the
179       mappings in a user namespace and written to (once) to define  the  map‐
180       pings.
181
182       The  description  in  the following paragraphs explains the details for
183       uid_map; gid_map is exactly the same, but each instance of "user ID" is
184       replaced by "group ID".
185
186       The  uid_map  file exposes the mapping of user IDs from the user names‐
187       pace of the process pid to the  user  namespace  of  the  process  that
188       opened uid_map (but see a qualification to this point below).  In other
189       words, processes that are in different user namespaces will potentially
190       see  different  values  when  reading  from  a particular uid_map file,
191       depending on the user ID mappings for the user namespaces of the  read‐
192       ing processes.
193
194       Each  line in the uid_map file specifies a 1-to-1 mapping of a range of
195       contiguous user IDs between two user namespaces.  (When a  user  names‐
196       pace  is first created, this file is empty.)  The specification in each
197       line takes the form of three numbers delimited  by  white  space.   The
198       first  two numbers specify the starting user ID in each of the two user
199       namespaces.  The third number specifies the length of the mapped range.
200       In detail, the fields are interpreted as follows:
201
202       (1) The  start  of  the  range of user IDs in the user namespace of the
203           process pid.
204
205       (2) The start of the range of user IDs to which the user IDs  specified
206           by  field one map.  How field two is interpreted depends on whether
207           the process that opened uid_map and the process pid are in the same
208           user namespace, as follows:
209
210           a) If the two processes are in different user namespaces: field two
211              is the start of a range of user IDs in the user namespace of the
212              process that opened uid_map.
213
214           b) If  the  two processes are in the same user namespace: field two
215              is the start of the range of user IDs in the parent user  names‐
216              pace  of  the  process  pid.   This  case  enables the opener of
217              uid_map (the common case here is opening /proc/self/uid_map)  to
218              see  the  mapping  of  user  IDs  into the user namespace of the
219              process that created this user namespace.
220
221       (3) The length of the range of user IDs that is mapped between the  two
222           user namespaces.
223
224       System  calls  that return user IDs (group IDs)—for example, getuid(2),
225       getgid(2), and the credential  fields  in  the  structure  returned  by
226       stat(2)—return  the  user  ID  (group ID) mapped into the caller's user
227       namespace.
228
229       When a process accesses a file, its user and group IDs are mapped  into
230       the  initial  user namespace for the purpose of permission checking and
231       assigning IDs when creating a file.  When a process retrieves file user
232       and  group  IDs  via stat(2), the IDs are mapped in the opposite direc‐
233       tion, to produce values relative to the process user and group ID  map‐
234       pings.
235
236       The  initial  user  namespace has no parent namespace, but, for consis‐
237       tency, the kernel provides dummy user and group ID  mapping  files  for
238       this namespace.  Looking at the uid_map file (gid_map is the same) from
239       a shell in the initial namespace shows:
240
241           $ cat /proc/$$/uid_map
242                    0          0 4294967295
243
244       This mapping tells us that the range starting at  user  ID  0  in  this
245       namespace  maps  to  a  range starting at 0 in the (nonexistent) parent
246       namespace, and the length of the range is the largest  32-bit  unsigned
247       integer.  This leaves 4294967295 (the 32-bit signed -1 value) unmapped.
248       This is deliberate: (uid_t) -1 is used  in  several  interfaces  (e.g.,
249       setreuid(2))  as  a  way  to  specify "no user ID".  Leaving (uid_t) -1
250       unmapped and unusable guarantees that there will be no  confusion  when
251       using these interfaces.
252
253   Defining user and group ID mappings: writing to uid_map and gid_map
254       After  the creation of a new user namespace, the uid_map file of one of
255       the processes in the namespace may be written to  once  to  define  the
256       mapping  of  user  IDs  in the new user namespace.  An attempt to write
257       more than once to a uid_map file in a user  namespace  fails  with  the
258       error EPERM.  Similar rules apply for gid_map files.
259
260       The  lines  written  to uid_map (gid_map) must conform to the following
261       rules:
262
263       *  The three fields must be valid numbers, and the last field  must  be
264          greater than 0.
265
266       *  Lines are terminated by newline characters.
267
268       *  There  is a limit on the number of lines in the file.  In Linux 4.14
269          and earlier, this limit was (arbitrarily) set  at  5  lines.   Since
270          Linux  4.15,  the  limit  is  340 lines.  In addition, the number of
271          bytes written to the file must be less than the  system  page  size,
272          and  the  write  must  be  performed at the start of the file (i.e.,
273          lseek(2) and pwrite(2) can't be used to write to nonzero offsets  in
274          the file).
275
276       *  The  range  of  user  IDs  (group IDs) specified in each line cannot
277          overlap with the ranges in any other lines.  In the  initial  imple‐
278          mentation  (Linux 3.8), this requirement was satisfied by a simplis‐
279          tic implementation that imposed the  further  requirement  that  the
280          values  in  both  field 1 and field 2 of successive lines must be in
281          ascending numerical order, which prevented some otherwise valid maps
282          from being created.  Linux 3.9 and later fix this limitation, allow‐
283          ing any valid set of nonoverlapping maps.
284
285       *  At least one line must be written to the file.
286
287       Writes that violate the above rules fail with the error EINVAL.
288
289       In  order  for  a  process  to   write   to   the   /proc/[pid]/uid_map
290       (/proc/[pid]/gid_map)  file,  all of the following requirements must be
291       met:
292
293       1. The writing process must have the CAP_SETUID (CAP_SETGID) capability
294          in the user namespace of the process pid.
295
296       2. The  writing  process  must  either  be in the user namespace of the
297          process pid or be in the parent user namespace of the process pid.
298
299       3. The mapped user IDs (group IDs) must in turn have a mapping  in  the
300          parent user namespace.
301
302       4. One of the following two cases applies:
303
304          *  Either  the writing process has the CAP_SETUID (CAP_SETGID) capa‐
305             bility in the parent user namespace.
306
307             +  No further restrictions apply: the process can  make  mappings
308                to  arbitrary  user  IDs (group IDs) in the parent user names‐
309                pace.
310
311          *  Or otherwise all of the following restrictions apply:
312
313             +  The data written to uid_map (gid_map) must consist of a single
314                line  that maps the writing process's effective user ID (group
315                ID) in the parent user namespace to a user ID  (group  ID)  in
316                the user namespace.
317
318             +  The  writing  process  must have the same effective user ID as
319                the process that created the user namespace.
320
321             +  In the case of gid_map, use of the  setgroups(2)  system  call
322                must first be denied by writing "deny" to the /proc/[pid]/set‐
323                groups file (see below) before writing to gid_map.
324
325       Writes that violate the above rules fail with the error EPERM.
326
327   Interaction with system calls that change process UIDs or GIDs
328       In a user namespace where the uid_map file has not  been  written,  the
329       system calls that change user IDs will fail.  Similarly, if the gid_map
330       file has not been written, the system calls that change group IDs  will
331       fail.   After the uid_map and gid_map files have been written, only the
332       mapped values may be used in system calls that change  user  and  group
333       IDs.
334
335       For user IDs, the relevant system calls include setuid(2), setfsuid(2),
336       setreuid(2), and setresuid(2).  For  group  IDs,  the  relevant  system
337       calls  include  setgid(2),  setfsgid(2), setregid(2), setresgid(2), and
338       setgroups(2).
339
340       Writing "deny" to the  /proc/[pid]/setgroups  file  before  writing  to
341       /proc/[pid]/gid_map  will  permanently  disable  setgroups(2) in a user
342       namespace and allow writing to /proc/[pid]/gid_map without  having  the
343       CAP_SETGID capability in the parent user namespace.
344
345   The /proc/[pid]/setgroups file
346       The /proc/[pid]/setgroups file displays the string "allow" if processes
347       in the user namespace that contains the process pid  are  permitted  to
348       employ the setgroups(2) system call; it displays "deny" if setgroups(2)
349       is not permitted in that user namespace.  Note that regardless  of  the
350       value   in  the  /proc/[pid]/setgroups  file  (and  regardless  of  the
351       process's capabilities), calls to setgroups(2) are also  not  permitted
352       if /proc/[pid]/gid_map has not yet been set.
353
354       A  privileged  process  (one  with  the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability in the
355       namespace) may write either of the strings "allow" or  "deny"  to  this
356       file  before  writing a group ID mapping for this user namespace to the
357       file /proc/[pid]/gid_map.   Writing  the  string  "deny"  prevents  any
358       process in the user namespace from employing setgroups(2).
359
360       The essence of the restrictions described in the preceding paragraph is
361       that it is permitted to write to /proc/[pid]/setgroups only so long  as
362       calling  setgroups(2)  is disallowed because /proc/[pid]gid_map has not
363       been set.  This ensures that a process cannot transition from  a  state
364       where  setgroups(2) is allowed to a state where setgroups(2) is denied;
365       a process can transition only from  setgroups(2)  being  disallowed  to
366       setgroups(2) being allowed.
367
368       The  default  value  of  this  file  in  the  initial user namespace is
369       "allow".
370
371       Once /proc/[pid]/gid_map has been written to (which has the  effect  of
372       enabling  setgroups(2) in the user namespace), it is no longer possible
373       to disallow setgroups(2) by  writing  "deny"  to  /proc/[pid]/setgroups
374       (the write fails with the error EPERM).
375
376       A  child user namespace inherits the /proc/[pid]/setgroups setting from
377       its parent.
378
379       If the setgroups file has the value "deny", then the setgroups(2)  sys‐
380       tem  call  can't  subsequently  be reenabled (by writing "allow" to the
381       file) in this user namespace.  (Attempts to do so fail with  the  error
382       EPERM.)  This restriction also propagates down to all child user names‐
383       paces of this user namespace.
384
385       The /proc/[pid]/setgroups file was added in Linux 3.19, but  was  back‐
386       ported  to  many  earlier  stable kernel series, because it addresses a
387       security issue.  The issue concerned files  with  permissions  such  as
388       "rwx---rwx".  Such files give fewer permissions to "group" than they do
389       to "other".  This means that dropping groups using  setgroups(2)  might
390       allow  a process file access that it did not formerly have.  Before the
391       existence of user namespaces this was not a concern, since only a priv‐
392       ileged  process  (one  with  the CAP_SETGID capability) could call set‐
393       groups(2).  However, with  the  introduction  of  user  namespaces,  it
394       became  possible  for an unprivileged process to create a new namespace
395       in which the user had  all  privileges.   This  then  allowed  formerly
396       unprivileged  users  to drop groups and thus gain file access that they
397       did not previously have.  The /proc/[pid]/setgroups file was  added  to
398       address this security issue, by denying any pathway for an unprivileged
399       process to drop groups with setgroups(2).
400
401   Unmapped user and group IDs
402       There are various places where an unmapped user ID (group  ID)  may  be
403       exposed  to  user  space.  For example, the first process in a new user
404       namespace may call getuid(2) before a user ID mapping has been  defined
405       for  the  namespace.   In  most such cases, an unmapped user ID is con‐
406       verted to the overflow user ID (group ID); the default  value  for  the
407       overflow  user  ID  (group  ID)  is  65534.   See  the  descriptions of
408       /proc/sys/kernel/overflowuid   and   /proc/sys/kernel/overflowgid    in
409       proc(5).
410
411       The  cases where unmapped IDs are mapped in this fashion include system
412       calls that return user IDs (getuid(2), getgid(2), and similar), creden‐
413       tials  passed  over  a  UNIX  domain  socket,  credentials  returned by
414       stat(2), waitid(2), and the System V  IPC  "ctl"  IPC_STAT  operations,
415       credentials   exposed   by   /proc/[pid]/status   and   the   files  in
416       /proc/sysvipc/*, credentials returned via the si_uid field in the  sig‐
417       info_t  received  with a signal (see sigaction(2)), credentials written
418       to the process accounting file (see acct(5)), and credentials  returned
419       with POSIX message queue notifications (see mq_notify(3)).
420
421       There  is  one  notable  case where unmapped user and group IDs are not
422       converted to the corresponding  overflow  ID  value.   When  viewing  a
423       uid_map  or  gid_map  file  in which there is no mapping for the second
424       field, that field is displayed as 4294967295 (-1 as an  unsigned  inte‐
425       ger).
426
427   Set-user-ID and set-group-ID programs
428       When  a  process  inside  a user namespace executes a set-user-ID (set-
429       group-ID) program, the process's effective user (group) ID  inside  the
430       namespace  is  changed to whatever value is mapped for the user (group)
431       ID of the file.  However, if either the user or the  group  ID  of  the
432       file  has  no mapping inside the namespace, the set-user-ID (set-group-
433       ID) bit is silently ignored: the  new  program  is  executed,  but  the
434       process's  effective  user (group) ID is left unchanged.  (This mirrors
435       the semantics of executing a set-user-ID or set-group-ID  program  that
436       resides  on  a  filesystem that was mounted with the MS_NOSUID flag, as
437       described in mount(2).)
438
439   Miscellaneous
440       When a process's user and group IDs  are  passed  over  a  UNIX  domain
441       socket  to a process in a different user namespace (see the description
442       of SCM_CREDENTIALS in unix(7)), they are  translated  into  the  corre‐
443       sponding  values  as per the receiving process's user and group ID map‐
444       pings.
445

CONFORMING TO

447       Namespaces are a Linux-specific feature.
448

NOTES

450       Over the years, there have been a lot of features that have been  added
451       to  the  Linux  kernel that have been made available only to privileged
452       users because of their potential to confuse  set-user-ID-root  applica‐
453       tions.   In  general,  it becomes safe to allow the root user in a user
454       namespace to use those features because it is impossible,  while  in  a
455       user  namespace,  to  gain  more privilege than the root user of a user
456       namespace has.
457
458   Availability
459       Use of user namespaces requires a kernel that is  configured  with  the
460       CONFIG_USER_NS  option.   User namespaces require support in a range of
461       subsystems across the kernel.  When an unsupported subsystem is config‐
462       ured  into  the kernel, it is not possible to configure user namespaces
463       support.
464
465       As at Linux 3.8, most relevant subsystems  supported  user  namespaces,
466       but  a  number of filesystems did not have the infrastructure needed to
467       map user and group IDs between user namespaces.  Linux  3.9  added  the
468       required  infrastructure  support for many of the remaining unsupported
469       filesystems (Plan 9 (9P), Andrew File System (AFS), Ceph,  CIFS,  CODA,
470       NFS,  and OCFS2).  Linux 3.12 added support the last of the unsupported
471       major filesystems, XFS.
472

EXAMPLE

474       The program below is designed to allow experimenting with  user  names‐
475       paces,  as well as other types of namespaces.  It creates namespaces as
476       specified by command-line options and then executes  a  command  inside
477       those namespaces.  The comments and usage() function inside the program
478       provide a full explanation of the program.  The following shell session
479       demonstrates its use.
480
481       First, we look at the run-time environment:
482
483           $ uname -rs     # Need Linux 3.8 or later
484           Linux 3.8.0
485           $ id -u         # Running as unprivileged user
486           1000
487           $ id -g
488           1000
489
490       Now start a new shell in new user (-U), mount (-m), and PID (-p) names‐
491       paces, with user ID (-M) and group ID (-G) 1000 mapped to 0 inside  the
492       user namespace:
493
494           $ ./userns_child_exec -p -m -U -M '0 1000 1' -G '0 1000 1' bash
495
496       The  shell  has  PID  1, because it is the first process in the new PID
497       namespace:
498
499           bash$ echo $$
500           1
501       Mounting a new /proc filesystem and listing all of the processes  visi‐
502       ble  in  the  new PID namespace shows that the shell can't see any pro‐
503       cesses outside the PID namespace:
504
505           bash$ mount -t proc proc /proc
506           bash$ ps ax
507             PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
508               1 pts/3    S      0:00 bash
509              22 pts/3    R+     0:00 ps ax
510
511       Inside the user namespace, the shell has user and group  ID  0,  and  a
512       full set of permitted and effective capabilities:
513
514           bash$ cat /proc/$$/status | egrep '^[UG]id'
515           Uid: 0    0    0    0
516           Gid: 0    0    0    0
517           bash$ cat /proc/$$/status | egrep '^Cap(Prm|Inh|Eff)'
518           CapInh:   0000000000000000
519           CapPrm:   0000001fffffffff
520           CapEff:   0000001fffffffff
521
522   Program source
523
524       /* userns_child_exec.c
525
526          Licensed under GNU General Public License v2 or later
527
528          Create a child process that executes a shell command in new
529          namespace(s); allow UID and GID mappings to be specified when
530          creating a user namespace.
531       */
532       #define _GNU_SOURCE
533       #include <sched.h>
534       #include <unistd.h>
535       #include <stdlib.h>
536       #include <sys/wait.h>
537       #include <signal.h>
538       #include <fcntl.h>
539       #include <stdio.h>
540       #include <string.h>
541       #include <limits.h>
542       #include <errno.h>
543
544       /* A simple error-handling function: print an error message based
545          on the value in 'errno' and terminate the calling process */
546
547       #define errExit(msg)    do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \
548                               } while (0)
549
550       struct child_args {
551           char **argv;        /* Command to be executed by child, with args */
552           int    pipe_fd[2];  /* Pipe used to synchronize parent and child */
553       };
554
555       static int verbose;
556
557       static void
558       usage(char *pname)
559       {
560           fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [options] cmd [arg...]\n\n", pname);
561           fprintf(stderr, "Create a child process that executes a shell "
562                   "command in a new user namespace,\n"
563                   "and possibly also other new namespace(s).\n\n");
564           fprintf(stderr, "Options can be:\n\n");
565       #define fpe(str) fprintf(stderr, "    %s", str);
566           fpe("-i          New IPC namespace\n");
567           fpe("-m          New mount namespace\n");
568           fpe("-n          New network namespace\n");
569           fpe("-p          New PID namespace\n");
570           fpe("-u          New UTS namespace\n");
571           fpe("-U          New user namespace\n");
572           fpe("-M uid_map  Specify UID map for user namespace\n");
573           fpe("-G gid_map  Specify GID map for user namespace\n");
574           fpe("-z          Map user's UID and GID to 0 in user namespace\n");
575           fpe("            (equivalent to: -M '0 <uid> 1' -G '0 <gid> 1')\n");
576           fpe("-v          Display verbose messages\n");
577           fpe("\n");
578           fpe("If -z, -M, or -G is specified, -U is required.\n");
579           fpe("It is not permitted to specify both -z and either -M or -G.\n");
580           fpe("\n");
581           fpe("Map strings for -M and -G consist of records of the form:\n");
582           fpe("\n");
583           fpe("    ID-inside-ns   ID-outside-ns   len\n");
584           fpe("\n");
585           fpe("A map string can contain multiple records, separated"
586               " by commas;\n");
587           fpe("the commas are replaced by newlines before writing"
588               " to map files.\n");
589
590           exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
591       }
592
593       /* Update the mapping file 'map_file', with the value provided in
594          'mapping', a string that defines a UID or GID mapping. A UID or
595          GID mapping consists of one or more newline-delimited records
596          of the form:
597
598              ID_inside-ns    ID-outside-ns   length
599
600          Requiring the user to supply a string that contains newlines is
601          of course inconvenient for command-line use. Thus, we permit the
602          use of commas to delimit records in this string, and replace them
603          with newlines before writing the string to the file. */
604
605       static void
606       update_map(char *mapping, char *map_file)
607       {
608           int fd, j;
609           size_t map_len;     /* Length of 'mapping' */
610
611           /* Replace commas in mapping string with newlines */
612
613           map_len = strlen(mapping);
614           for (j = 0; j < map_len; j++)
615               if (mapping[j] == ',')
616                   mapping[j] = '\n';
617
618           fd = open(map_file, O_RDWR);
619           if (fd == -1) {
620               fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: open %s: %s\n", map_file,
621                       strerror(errno));
622               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
623           }
624
625           if (write(fd, mapping, map_len) != map_len) {
626               fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: write %s: %s\n", map_file,
627                       strerror(errno));
628               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
629           }
630
631           close(fd);
632       }
633
634       /* Linux 3.19 made a change in the handling of setgroups(2) and the
635          'gid_map' file to address a security issue. The issue allowed
636          *unprivileged* users to employ user namespaces in order to drop
637          The upshot of the 3.19 changes is that in order to update the
638          'gid_maps' file, use of the setgroups() system call in this
639          user namespace must first be disabled by writing "deny" to one of
640          the /proc/PID/setgroups files for this namespace.  That is the
641          purpose of the following function. */
642
643       static void
644       proc_setgroups_write(pid_t child_pid, char *str)
645       {
646           char setgroups_path[PATH_MAX];
647           int fd;
648
649           snprintf(setgroups_path, PATH_MAX, "/proc/%ld/setgroups",
650                   (long) child_pid);
651
652           fd = open(setgroups_path, O_RDWR);
653           if (fd == -1) {
654
655               /* We may be on a system that doesn't support
656                  /proc/PID/setgroups. In that case, the file won't exist,
657                  and the system won't impose the restrictions that Linux 3.19
658                  added. That's fine: we don't need to do anything in order
659                  to permit 'gid_map' to be updated.
660
661                  However, if the error from open() was something other than
662                  the ENOENT error that is expected for that case,  let the
663                  user know. */
664
665               if (errno != ENOENT)
666                   fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: open %s: %s\n", setgroups_path,
667                       strerror(errno));
668               return;
669           }
670
671           if (write(fd, str, strlen(str)) == -1)
672               fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: write %s: %s\n", setgroups_path,
673                   strerror(errno));
674
675           close(fd);
676       }
677
678       static int              /* Start function for cloned child */
679       childFunc(void *arg)
680       {
681           struct child_args *args = (struct child_args *) arg;
682           char ch;
683
684           /* Wait until the parent has updated the UID and GID mappings.
685              See the comment in main(). We wait for end of file on a
686              pipe that will be closed by the parent process once it has
687              updated the mappings. */
688
689           close(args->pipe_fd[1]);    /* Close our descriptor for the write
690                                          end of the pipe so that we see EOF
691                                          when parent closes its descriptor */
692           if (read(args->pipe_fd[0], &ch, 1) != 0) {
693               fprintf(stderr,
694                       "Failure in child: read from pipe returned != 0\n");
695               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
696           }
697
698           close(args->pipe_fd[0]);
699
700           /* Execute a shell command */
701
702           printf("About to exec %s\n", args->argv[0]);
703           execvp(args->argv[0], args->argv);
704           errExit("execvp");
705       }
706
707       #define STACK_SIZE (1024 * 1024)
708
709       static char child_stack[STACK_SIZE];    /* Space for child's stack */
710
711       int
712       main(int argc, char *argv[])
713       {
714           int flags, opt, map_zero;
715           pid_t child_pid;
716           struct child_args args;
717           char *uid_map, *gid_map;
718           const int MAP_BUF_SIZE = 100;
719           char map_buf[MAP_BUF_SIZE];
720           char map_path[PATH_MAX];
721
722           /* Parse command-line options. The initial '+' character in
723              the final getopt() argument prevents GNU-style permutation
724              of command-line options. That's useful, since sometimes
725              the 'command' to be executed by this program itself
726              has command-line options. We don't want getopt() to treat
727              those as options to this program. */
728
729           flags = 0;
730           verbose = 0;
731           gid_map = NULL;
732           uid_map = NULL;
733           map_zero = 0;
734           while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "+imnpuUM:G:zv")) != -1) {
735               switch (opt) {
736               case 'i': flags |= CLONE_NEWIPC;        break;
737               case 'm': flags |= CLONE_NEWNS;         break;
738               case 'n': flags |= CLONE_NEWNET;        break;
739               case 'p': flags |= CLONE_NEWPID;        break;
740               case 'u': flags |= CLONE_NEWUTS;        break;
741               case 'v': verbose = 1;                  break;
742               case 'z': map_zero = 1;                 break;
743               case 'M': uid_map = optarg;             break;
744               case 'G': gid_map = optarg;             break;
745               case 'U': flags |= CLONE_NEWUSER;       break;
746               default:  usage(argv[0]);
747               }
748           }
749
750           /* -M or -G without -U is nonsensical */
751
752           if (((uid_map != NULL || gid_map != NULL || map_zero) &&
753                       !(flags & CLONE_NEWUSER)) ||
754                   (map_zero && (uid_map != NULL || gid_map != NULL)))
755               usage(argv[0]);
756
757           args.argv = &argv[optind];
758
759           /* We use a pipe to synchronize the parent and child, in order to
760              ensure that the parent sets the UID and GID maps before the child
761              calls execve(). This ensures that the child maintains its
762              capabilities during the execve() in the common case where we
763              want to map the child's effective user ID to 0 in the new user
764              namespace. Without this synchronization, the child would lose
765              its capabilities if it performed an execve() with nonzero
766              user IDs (see the capabilities(7) man page for details of the
767              transformation of a process's capabilities during execve()). */
768
769           if (pipe(args.pipe_fd) == -1)
770               errExit("pipe");
771
772           /* Create the child in new namespace(s) */
773
774           child_pid = clone(childFunc, child_stack + STACK_SIZE,
775                             flags | SIGCHLD, &args);
776           if (child_pid == -1)
777               errExit("clone");
778
779           /* Parent falls through to here */
780
781           if (verbose)
782               printf("%s: PID of child created by clone() is %ld\n",
783                       argv[0], (long) child_pid);
784
785           /* Update the UID and GID maps in the child */
786
787           if (uid_map != NULL || map_zero) {
788               snprintf(map_path, PATH_MAX, "/proc/%ld/uid_map",
789                       (long) child_pid);
790               if (map_zero) {
791                   snprintf(map_buf, MAP_BUF_SIZE, "0 %ld 1", (long) getuid());
792                   uid_map = map_buf;
793               }
794               update_map(uid_map, map_path);
795           }
796
797           if (gid_map != NULL || map_zero) {
798               proc_setgroups_write(child_pid, "deny");
799
800               snprintf(map_path, PATH_MAX, "/proc/%ld/gid_map",
801                       (long) child_pid);
802               if (map_zero) {
803                   snprintf(map_buf, MAP_BUF_SIZE, "0 %ld 1", (long) getgid());
804                   gid_map = map_buf;
805               }
806               update_map(gid_map, map_path);
807           }
808
809           /* Close the write end of the pipe, to signal to the child that we
810              have updated the UID and GID maps */
811
812           close(args.pipe_fd[1]);
813
814           if (waitpid(child_pid, NULL, 0) == -1)      /* Wait for child */
815               errExit("waitpid");
816
817           if (verbose)
818               printf("%s: terminating\n", argv[0]);
819
820           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
821       }
822

SEE ALSO

824       newgidmap(1),  newuidmap(1), clone(2), ptrace(2), setns(2), unshare(2),
825       proc(5), subgid(5),  subuid(5),  capabilities(7),  cgroup_namespaces(7)
826       credentials(7), namespaces(7), pid_namespaces(7)
827
828       The kernel source file Documentation/namespaces/resource-control.txt.
829

COLOPHON

831       This  page  is  part of release 4.15 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
832       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
833       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
834       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
835
836
837
838Linux                             2018-02-02                USER_NAMESPACES(7)
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