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27 .TH USER_NAMESPACES 7 2021-03-22 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
29 user_namespaces \- overview of Linux user namespaces
31 For an overview of namespaces, see
34 User namespaces isolate security-related identifiers and attributes,
36 user IDs and group IDs (see
41 .\" FIXME: This page says very little about the interaction
42 .\" of user namespaces and keys. Add something on this topic.
44 .BR capabilities (7)).
45 A process's user and group IDs can be different
46 inside and outside a user namespace.
48 a process can have a normal unprivileged user ID outside a user namespace
49 while at the same time having a user ID of 0 inside the namespace;
51 the process has full privileges for operations inside the user namespace,
52 but is unprivileged for operations outside the namespace.
54 .\" ============================================================
56 .SS Nested namespaces, namespace membership
57 User namespaces can be nested;
58 that is, each user namespace\(emexcept the initial ("root")
59 namespace\(emhas a parent user namespace,
60 and can have zero or more child user namespaces.
61 The parent user namespace is the user namespace
62 of the process that creates the user namespace via a call to
70 The kernel imposes (since version 3.11) a limit of 32 nested levels of
71 .\" commit 8742f229b635bf1c1c84a3dfe5e47c814c20b5c8
73 .\" FIXME Explain the rationale for this limit. (What is the rationale?)
78 that would cause this limit to be exceeded fail with the error
81 Each process is a member of exactly one user namespace.
88 flag is a member of the same user namespace as its parent.
89 A single-threaded process can join another user namespace with
94 upon doing so, it gains a full set of capabilities in that namespace.
102 flag makes the new child process (for
106 a member of the new user namespace created by the call.
111 operation can be used to discover the parental relationship
112 between user namespaces; see
115 .\" ============================================================
118 The child process created by
122 flag starts out with a complete set
123 of capabilities in the new user namespace.
124 Likewise, a process that creates a new user namespace using
126 or joins an existing user namespace using
128 gains a full set of capabilities in that namespace.
130 that process has no capabilities in the parent (in the case of
132 or previous (in the case of
137 even if the new namespace is created or joined by the root user
138 (i.e., a process with user ID 0 in the root namespace).
142 will cause a process's capabilities to be recalculated in the usual way (see
143 .BR capabilities (7)).
145 unless the process has a user ID of 0 within the namespace,
146 or the executable file has a nonempty inheritable capabilities mask,
147 the process will lose all capabilities.
148 See the discussion of user and group ID mappings, below.
159 that moves the caller into another user namespace
160 sets the "securebits" flags
162 .BR capabilities (7))
163 to their default values (all flags disabled) in the child (for
169 Note that because the caller no longer has capabilities
170 in its original user namespace after a call to
172 it is not possible for a process to reset its "securebits" flags while
173 retaining its user namespace membership by using a pair of
175 calls to move to another user namespace and then return to
176 its original user namespace.
178 The rules for determining whether or not a process has a capability
179 in a particular user namespace are as follows:
181 A process has a capability inside a user namespace
182 if it is a member of that namespace and
183 it has the capability in its effective capability set.
184 A process can gain capabilities in its effective capability
186 For example, it may execute a set-user-ID program or an
187 executable with associated file capabilities.
189 a process may gain capabilities via the effect of
194 as already described.
195 .\" In the 3.8 sources, see security/commoncap.c::cap_capable():
197 If a process has a capability in a user namespace,
198 then it has that capability in all child (and further removed descendant)
201 .\" * The owner of the user namespace in the parent of the
202 .\" * user namespace has all caps.
203 When a user namespace is created, the kernel records the effective
204 user ID of the creating process as being the "owner" of the namespace.
205 .\" (and likewise associates the effective group ID of the creating process
206 .\" with the namespace).
207 A process that resides
208 in the parent of the user namespace
209 .\" See kernel commit 520d9eabce18edfef76a60b7b839d54facafe1f9 for a fix
211 and whose effective user ID matches the owner of the namespace
212 has all capabilities in the namespace.
213 .\" This includes the case where the process executes a set-user-ID
214 .\" program that confers the effective UID of the creator of the namespace.
215 By virtue of the previous rule,
216 this means that the process has all capabilities in all
217 further removed descendant user namespaces as well.
221 operation can be used to discover the user ID of the owner of the namespace;
225 .\" ============================================================
227 .SS Effect of capabilities within a user namespace
228 Having a capability inside a user namespace
229 permits a process to perform operations (that require privilege)
230 only on resources governed by that namespace.
231 In other words, having a capability in a user namespace permits a process
232 to perform privileged operations on resources that are governed by (nonuser)
233 namespaces owned by (associated with) the user namespace
234 (see the next subsection).
236 On the other hand, there are many privileged operations that affect
237 resources that are not associated with any namespace type,
238 for example, changing the system (i.e., calendar) time (governed by
240 loading a kernel module (governed by
241 .BR CAP_SYS_MODULE ),
242 and creating a device (governed by
244 Only a process with privileges in the
246 user namespace can perform such operations.
250 within the user namespace that owns a process's mount namespace
251 allows that process to create bind mounts
252 and mount the following types of filesystems:
253 .\" fs_flags = FS_USERNS_MOUNT in kernel sources
277 .\" commit b2197755b2633e164a439682fb05a9b5ea48f706
281 .\" commit 92dbc9dedccb9759c7f9f2f0ae6242396376988f
282 .\" commit 4cb2c00c43b3fe88b32f29df4f76da1b92c33224
289 within the user namespace that owns a process's cgroup namespace
290 allows (since Linux 4.6)
291 that process to the mount the cgroup version 2 filesystem and
292 cgroup version 1 named hierarchies
293 (i.e., cgroup filesystems mounted with the
299 within the user namespace that owns a process's PID namespace
300 allows (since Linux 3.8)
301 that process to mount
305 Note however, that mounting block-based filesystems can be done
306 only by a process that holds
308 in the initial user namespace.
310 .\" ============================================================
312 .SS Interaction of user namespaces and other types of namespaces
313 Starting in Linux 3.8, unprivileged processes can create user namespaces,
314 and the other types of namespaces can be created with just the
316 capability in the caller's user namespace.
318 When a nonuser namespace is created,
319 it is owned by the user namespace in which the creating process
320 was a member at the time of the creation of the namespace.
321 Privileged operations on resources governed by the nonuser namespace
322 require that the process has the necessary capabilities
323 in the user namespace that owns the nonuser namespace.
327 is specified along with other
333 call, the user namespace is guaranteed to be created first,
338 privileges over the remaining namespaces created by the call.
339 Thus, it is possible for an unprivileged caller to specify this combination
342 When a new namespace (other than a user namespace) is created via
346 the kernel records the user namespace of the creating process as the owner of
348 (This association can't be changed.)
349 When a process in the new namespace subsequently performs
350 privileged operations that operate on global
351 resources isolated by the namespace,
352 the permission checks are performed according to the process's capabilities
353 in the user namespace that the kernel associated with the new namespace.
354 For example, suppose that a process attempts to change the hostname
355 .RB ( sethostname (2)),
356 a resource governed by the UTS namespace.
358 the kernel will determine which user namespace owns
359 the process's UTS namespace, and check whether the process has the
361 .RB ( CAP_SYS_ADMIN )
362 in that user namespace.
367 operation can be used to discover the user namespace
368 that owns a nonuser namespace; see
371 .\" ============================================================
373 .SS User and group ID mappings: uid_map and gid_map
374 When a user namespace is created,
375 it starts out without a mapping of user IDs (group IDs)
376 to the parent user namespace.
378 .IR /proc/[pid]/uid_map
380 .IR /proc/[pid]/gid_map
381 files (available since Linux 3.5)
382 .\" commit 22d917d80e842829d0ca0a561967d728eb1d6303
383 expose the mappings for user and group IDs
384 inside the user namespace for the process
386 These files can be read to view the mappings in a user namespace and
387 written to (once) to define the mappings.
389 The description in the following paragraphs explains the details for
393 but each instance of "user ID" is replaced by "group ID".
397 file exposes the mapping of user IDs from the user namespace
400 to the user namespace of the process that opened
402 (but see a qualification to this point below).
403 In other words, processes that are in different user namespaces
404 will potentially see different values when reading from a particular
406 file, depending on the user ID mappings for the user namespaces
407 of the reading processes.
411 file specifies a 1-to-1 mapping of a range of contiguous
412 user IDs between two user namespaces.
413 (When a user namespace is first created, this file is empty.)
414 The specification in each line takes the form of
415 three numbers delimited by white space.
416 The first two numbers specify the starting user ID in
417 each of the two user namespaces.
418 The third number specifies the length of the mapped range.
419 In detail, the fields are interpreted as follows:
421 The start of the range of user IDs in
422 the user namespace of the process
425 The start of the range of user
426 IDs to which the user IDs specified by field one map.
427 How field two is interpreted depends on whether the process that opened
431 are in the same user namespace, as follows:
434 If the two processes are in different user namespaces:
435 field two is the start of a range of
436 user IDs in the user namespace of the process that opened
439 If the two processes are in the same user namespace:
440 field two is the start of the range of
441 user IDs in the parent user namespace of the process
443 This case enables the opener of
445 (the common case here is opening
446 .IR /proc/self/uid_map )
447 to see the mapping of user IDs into the user namespace of the process
448 that created this user namespace.
451 The length of the range of user IDs that is mapped between the two
454 System calls that return user IDs (group IDs)\(emfor example,
457 and the credential fields in the structure returned by
458 .BR stat (2)\(emreturn
459 the user ID (group ID) mapped into the caller's user namespace.
461 When a process accesses a file, its user and group IDs
462 are mapped into the initial user namespace for the purpose of permission
463 checking and assigning IDs when creating a file.
464 When a process retrieves file user and group IDs via
466 the IDs are mapped in the opposite direction,
467 to produce values relative to the process user and group ID mappings.
469 The initial user namespace has no parent namespace,
470 but, for consistency, the kernel provides dummy user and group
471 ID mapping files for this namespace.
476 is the same) from a shell in the initial namespace shows:
480 $ \fBcat /proc/$$/uid_map\fP
485 This mapping tells us
486 that the range starting at user ID 0 in this namespace
487 maps to a range starting at 0 in the (nonexistent) parent namespace,
488 and the length of the range is the largest 32-bit unsigned integer.
489 This leaves 4294967295 (the 32-bit signed \-1 value) unmapped.
492 is used in several interfaces (e.g.,
494 as a way to specify "no user ID".
497 unmapped and unusable guarantees that there will be no
498 confusion when using these interfaces.
500 .\" ============================================================
502 .SS Defining user and group ID mappings: writing to uid_map and gid_map
503 After the creation of a new user namespace, the
507 of the processes in the namespace may be written to
509 to define the mapping of user IDs in the new user namespace.
510 An attempt to write more than once to a
512 file in a user namespace fails with the error
514 Similar rules apply for
521 must conform to the following rules:
523 The three fields must be valid numbers,
524 and the last field must be greater than 0.
526 Lines are terminated by newline characters.
528 There is a limit on the number of lines in the file.
529 In Linux 4.14 and earlier, this limit was (arbitrarily)
530 .\" 5*12-byte records could fit in a 64B cache line
533 .\" commit 6397fac4915ab3002dc15aae751455da1a852f25
534 the limit is 340 lines.
535 In addition, the number of bytes written to
536 the file must be less than the system page size,
537 and the write must be performed at the start of the file (i.e.,
541 can't be used to write to nonzero offsets in the file).
543 The range of user IDs (group IDs)
544 specified in each line cannot overlap with the ranges
546 In the initial implementation (Linux 3.8), this requirement was
547 satisfied by a simplistic implementation that imposed the further
549 the values in both field 1 and field 2 of successive lines must be
550 in ascending numerical order,
551 which prevented some otherwise valid maps from being created.
553 .\" commit 0bd14b4fd72afd5df41e9fd59f356740f22fceba
554 fix this limitation, allowing any valid set of nonoverlapping maps.
556 At least one line must be written to the file.
558 Writes that violate the above rules fail with the error
561 In order for a process to write to the
562 .I /proc/[pid]/uid_map
563 .RI ( /proc/[pid]/gid_map )
564 file, all of the following requirements must be met:
566 The writing process must have the
569 capability in the user namespace of the process
572 The writing process must either be in the user namespace of the process
574 or be in the parent user namespace of the process
577 The mapped user IDs (group IDs) must in turn have a mapping
578 in the parent user namespace.
580 One of the following two cases applies:
584 the writing process has the
592 No further restrictions apply:
593 the process can make mappings to arbitrary user IDs (group IDs)
594 in the parent user namespace.
598 otherwise all of the following restrictions apply:
604 must consist of a single line that maps
605 the writing process's effective user ID
606 (group ID) in the parent user namespace to a user ID (group ID)
607 in the user namespace.
609 The writing process must have the same effective user ID as the process
610 that created the user namespace.
616 system call must first be denied by writing
619 .I /proc/[pid]/setgroups
620 file (see below) before writing to
625 Writes that violate the above rules fail with the error
628 .\" ============================================================
630 .SS Interaction with system calls that change process UIDs or GIDs
631 In a user namespace where the
633 file has not been written, the system calls that change user IDs will fail.
636 file has not been written, the system calls that change group IDs will fail.
641 files have been written, only the mapped values may be used in
642 system calls that change user and group IDs.
644 For user IDs, the relevant system calls include
650 For group IDs, the relevant system calls include
661 .I /proc/[pid]/setgroups
662 file before writing to
663 .I /proc/[pid]/gid_map
664 .\" Things changed in Linux 3.19
665 .\" commit 9cc46516ddf497ea16e8d7cb986ae03a0f6b92f8
666 .\" commit 66d2f338ee4c449396b6f99f5e75cd18eb6df272
667 .\" http://lwn.net/Articles/626665/
668 will permanently disable
670 in a user namespace and allow writing to
671 .I /proc/[pid]/gid_map
674 capability in the parent user namespace.
676 .\" ============================================================
678 .SS The /proc/[pid]/setgroups file
680 .\" commit 9cc46516ddf497ea16e8d7cb986ae03a0f6b92f8
681 .\" commit 66d2f338ee4c449396b6f99f5e75cd18eb6df272
682 .\" http://lwn.net/Articles/626665/
683 .\" http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2014-8989
686 .I /proc/[pid]/setgroups
687 file displays the string
689 if processes in the user namespace that contains the process
691 are permitted to employ the
693 system call; it displays
697 is not permitted in that user namespace.
698 Note that regardless of the value in the
699 .I /proc/[pid]/setgroups
700 file (and regardless of the process's capabilities), calls to
702 are also not permitted if
703 .IR /proc/[pid]/gid_map
704 has not yet been set.
706 A privileged process (one with the
708 capability in the namespace) may write either of the strings
714 writing a group ID mapping
715 for this user namespace to the file
716 .IR /proc/[pid]/gid_map .
719 prevents any process in the user namespace from employing
722 The essence of the restrictions described in the preceding
723 paragraph is that it is permitted to write to
724 .I /proc/[pid]/setgroups
725 only so long as calling
727 is disallowed because
728 .I /proc/[pid]/gid_map
730 This ensures that a process cannot transition from a state where
732 is allowed to a state where
735 a process can transition only from
741 The default value of this file in the initial user namespace is
745 .IR /proc/[pid]/gid_map
747 (which has the effect of enabling
749 in the user namespace),
750 it is no longer possible to disallow
755 .IR /proc/[pid]/setgroups
756 (the write fails with the error
759 A child user namespace inherits the
760 .IR /proc/[pid]/setgroups
761 setting from its parent.
769 system call can't subsequently be reenabled (by writing
771 to the file) in this user namespace.
772 (Attempts to do so fail with the error
774 This restriction also propagates down to all child user namespaces of
778 .I /proc/[pid]/setgroups
779 file was added in Linux 3.19,
780 but was backported to many earlier stable kernel series,
781 because it addresses a security issue.
782 The issue concerned files with permissions such as "rwx\-\-\-rwx".
783 Such files give fewer permissions to "group" than they do to "other".
784 This means that dropping groups using
786 might allow a process file access that it did not formerly have.
787 Before the existence of user namespaces this was not a concern,
788 since only a privileged process (one with the
790 capability) could call
792 However, with the introduction of user namespaces,
793 it became possible for an unprivileged process to create
794 a new namespace in which the user had all privileges.
795 This then allowed formerly unprivileged
796 users to drop groups and thus gain file access
797 that they did not previously have.
799 .I /proc/[pid]/setgroups
800 file was added to address this security issue,
801 by denying any pathway for an unprivileged process to drop groups with
804 .\" /proc/PID/setgroups
805 .\" [allow == setgroups() is allowed, "deny" == setgroups() is disallowed]
806 .\" * Can write if have CAP_SYS_ADMIN in NS
807 .\" * Must write BEFORE writing to /proc/PID/gid_map
810 .\" * Must already have written to gid_map
811 .\" * /proc/PID/setgroups must be "allow"
813 .\" /proc/PID/gid_map -- writing
814 .\" * Must already have written "deny" to /proc/PID/setgroups
816 .\" ============================================================
818 .SS Unmapped user and group IDs
819 There are various places where an unmapped user ID (group ID)
820 may be exposed to user space.
821 For example, the first process in a new user namespace may call
823 before a user ID mapping has been defined for the namespace.
824 In most such cases, an unmapped user ID is converted
825 .\" from_kuid_munged(), from_kgid_munged()
826 to the overflow user ID (group ID);
827 the default value for the overflow user ID (group ID) is 65534.
828 See the descriptions of
829 .IR /proc/sys/kernel/overflowuid
831 .IR /proc/sys/kernel/overflowgid
835 The cases where unmapped IDs are mapped in this fashion include
836 system calls that return user IDs
840 credentials passed over a UNIX domain socket,
842 credentials returned by
845 and the System V IPC "ctl"
848 credentials exposed by
849 .IR /proc/[pid]/status
851 .IR /proc/sysvipc/* ,
852 credentials returned via the
856 received with a signal (see
858 credentials written to the process accounting file (see
860 and credentials returned with POSIX message queue notifications (see
863 There is one notable case where unmapped user and group IDs are
865 .\" from_kuid(), from_kgid()
866 .\" Also F_GETOWNER_UIDS is an exception
867 converted to the corresponding overflow ID value.
872 file in which there is no mapping for the second field,
873 that field is displayed as 4294967295 (\-1 as an unsigned integer).
875 .\" ============================================================
878 In order to determine permissions when an unprivileged process accesses a file,
879 the process credentials (UID, GID) and the file credentials
880 are in effect mapped back to what they would be in
881 the initial user namespace and then compared to determine
882 the permissions that the process has on the file.
883 The same is also of other objects that employ the credentials plus
884 permissions mask accessibility model, such as System V IPC objects
886 .\" ============================================================
888 .SS Operation of file-related capabilities
889 Certain capabilities allow a process to bypass various
890 kernel-enforced restrictions when performing operations on
891 files owned by other users or groups.
892 These capabilities are:
894 .BR CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE ,
895 .BR CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH ,
900 Within a user namespace,
901 these capabilities allow a process to bypass the rules
902 if the process has the relevant capability over the file,
905 the process has the relevant effective capability in its user namespace; and
907 the file's user ID and group ID both have valid mappings
908 in the user namespace.
912 capability is treated somewhat exceptionally:
913 .\" These are the checks performed by the kernel function
914 .\" inode_owner_or_capable(). There is one exception to the exception:
915 .\" overriding the directory sticky permission bit requires that
916 .\" the file has a valid mapping for both its UID and GID.
917 it allows a process to bypass the corresponding rules so long as
918 at least the file's user ID has a mapping in the user namespace
919 (i.e., the file's group ID does not need to have a valid mapping).
921 .\" ============================================================
923 .SS Set-user-ID and set-group-ID programs
924 When a process inside a user namespace executes
925 a set-user-ID (set-group-ID) program,
926 the process's effective user (group) ID inside the namespace is changed
927 to whatever value is mapped for the user (group) ID of the file.
928 However, if either the user
930 the group ID of the file has no mapping inside the namespace,
931 the set-user-ID (set-group-ID) bit is silently ignored:
932 the new program is executed,
933 but the process's effective user (group) ID is left unchanged.
934 (This mirrors the semantics of executing a set-user-ID or set-group-ID
935 program that resides on a filesystem that was mounted with the
937 flag, as described in
940 .\" ============================================================
943 When a process's user and group IDs are passed over a UNIX domain socket
944 to a process in a different user namespace (see the description of
948 they are translated into the corresponding values as per the
949 receiving process's user and group ID mappings.
952 Namespaces are a Linux-specific feature.
955 Over the years, there have been a lot of features that have been added
956 to the Linux kernel that have been made available only to privileged users
957 because of their potential to confuse set-user-ID-root applications.
958 In general, it becomes safe to allow the root user in a user namespace to
959 use those features because it is impossible, while in a user namespace,
960 to gain more privilege than the root user of a user namespace has.
962 .\" ============================================================
965 Use of user namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with the
968 User namespaces require support in a range of subsystems across
970 When an unsupported subsystem is configured into the kernel,
971 it is not possible to configure user namespaces support.
973 As at Linux 3.8, most relevant subsystems supported user namespaces,
974 but a number of filesystems did not have the infrastructure needed
975 to map user and group IDs between user namespaces.
976 Linux 3.9 added the required infrastructure support for many of
977 the remaining unsupported filesystems
978 (Plan 9 (9P), Andrew File System (AFS), Ceph, CIFS, CODA, NFS, and OCFS2).
979 Linux 3.12 added support for the last of the unsupported major filesystems,
980 .\" commit d6970d4b726cea6d7a9bc4120814f95c09571fc3
984 The program below is designed to allow experimenting with
985 user namespaces, as well as other types of namespaces.
986 It creates namespaces as specified by command-line options and then executes
987 a command inside those namespaces.
990 function inside the program provide a full explanation of the program.
991 The following shell session demonstrates its use.
993 First, we look at the run-time environment:
997 $ \fBuname \-rs\fP # Need Linux 3.8 or later
999 $ \fBid \-u\fP # Running as unprivileged user
1006 Now start a new shell in new user
1012 namespaces, with user ID
1016 1000 mapped to 0 inside the user namespace:
1020 $ \fB./userns_child_exec \-p \-m \-U \-M \(aq0 1000 1\(aq \-G \(aq0 1000 1\(aq bash\fP
1024 The shell has PID 1, because it is the first process in the new
1036 filesystem and listing all of the processes visible
1037 in the new PID namespace shows that the shell can't see
1038 any processes outside the PID namespace:
1042 bash$ \fBmount \-t proc proc /proc\fP
1044 PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
1046 22 pts/3 R+ 0:00 ps ax
1050 Inside the user namespace, the shell has user and group ID 0,
1051 and a full set of permitted and effective capabilities:
1055 bash$ \fBcat /proc/$$/status | egrep \(aq\(ha[UG]id\(aq\fP
1058 bash$ \fBcat /proc/$$/status | egrep \(aq\(haCap(Prm|Inh|Eff)\(aq\fP
1059 CapInh: 0000000000000000
1060 CapPrm: 0000001fffffffff
1061 CapEff: 0000001fffffffff
1067 /* userns_child_exec.c
1069 Licensed under GNU General Public License v2 or later
1071 Create a child process that executes a shell command in new
1072 namespace(s); allow UID and GID mappings to be specified when
1073 creating a user namespace.
1080 #include <sys/wait.h>
1088 /* A simple error\-handling function: print an error message based
1089 on the value in \(aqerrno\(aq and terminate the calling process. */
1091 #define errExit(msg) do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \e
1095 char **argv; /* Command to be executed by child, with args */
1096 int pipe_fd[2]; /* Pipe used to synchronize parent and child */
1104 fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [options] cmd [arg...]\en\en", pname);
1105 fprintf(stderr, "Create a child process that executes a shell "
1106 "command in a new user namespace,\en"
1107 "and possibly also other new namespace(s).\en\en");
1108 fprintf(stderr, "Options can be:\en\en");
1109 #define fpe(str) fprintf(stderr, " %s", str);
1110 fpe("\-i New IPC namespace\en");
1111 fpe("\-m New mount namespace\en");
1112 fpe("\-n New network namespace\en");
1113 fpe("\-p New PID namespace\en");
1114 fpe("\-u New UTS namespace\en");
1115 fpe("\-U New user namespace\en");
1116 fpe("\-M uid_map Specify UID map for user namespace\en");
1117 fpe("\-G gid_map Specify GID map for user namespace\en");
1118 fpe("\-z Map user\(aqs UID and GID to 0 in user namespace\en");
1119 fpe(" (equivalent to: \-M \(aq0 <uid> 1\(aq \-G \(aq0 <gid> 1\(aq)\en");
1120 fpe("\-v Display verbose messages\en");
1122 fpe("If \-z, \-M, or \-G is specified, \-U is required.\en");
1123 fpe("It is not permitted to specify both \-z and either \-M or \-G.\en");
1125 fpe("Map strings for \-M and \-G consist of records of the form:\en");
1127 fpe(" ID\-inside\-ns ID\-outside\-ns len\en");
1129 fpe("A map string can contain multiple records, separated"
1131 fpe("the commas are replaced by newlines before writing"
1132 " to map files.\en");
1137 /* Update the mapping file \(aqmap_file\(aq, with the value provided in
1138 \(aqmapping\(aq, a string that defines a UID or GID mapping. A UID or
1139 GID mapping consists of one or more newline\-delimited records
1142 ID_inside\-ns ID\-outside\-ns length
1144 Requiring the user to supply a string that contains newlines is
1145 of course inconvenient for command\-line use. Thus, we permit the
1146 use of commas to delimit records in this string, and replace them
1147 with newlines before writing the string to the file. */
1150 update_map(char *mapping, char *map_file)
1153 size_t map_len; /* Length of \(aqmapping\(aq */
1155 /* Replace commas in mapping string with newlines. */
1157 map_len = strlen(mapping);
1158 for (int j = 0; j < map_len; j++)
1159 if (mapping[j] == \(aq,\(aq)
1160 mapping[j] = \(aq\en\(aq;
1162 fd = open(map_file, O_RDWR);
1164 fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: open %s: %s\en", map_file,
1169 if (write(fd, mapping, map_len) != map_len) {
1170 fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: write %s: %s\en", map_file,
1178 /* Linux 3.19 made a change in the handling of setgroups(2) and the
1179 \(aqgid_map\(aq file to address a security issue. The issue allowed
1180 *unprivileged* users to employ user namespaces in order to drop
1181 The upshot of the 3.19 changes is that in order to update the
1182 \(aqgid_maps\(aq file, use of the setgroups() system call in this
1183 user namespace must first be disabled by writing "deny" to one of
1184 the /proc/PID/setgroups files for this namespace. That is the
1185 purpose of the following function. */
1188 proc_setgroups_write(pid_t child_pid, char *str)
1190 char setgroups_path[PATH_MAX];
1193 snprintf(setgroups_path, PATH_MAX, "/proc/%jd/setgroups",
1194 (intmax_t) child_pid);
1196 fd = open(setgroups_path, O_RDWR);
1199 /* We may be on a system that doesn\(aqt support
1200 /proc/PID/setgroups. In that case, the file won\(aqt exist,
1201 and the system won\(aqt impose the restrictions that Linux 3.19
1202 added. That\(aqs fine: we don\(aqt need to do anything in order
1203 to permit \(aqgid_map\(aq to be updated.
1205 However, if the error from open() was something other than
1206 the ENOENT error that is expected for that case, let the
1209 if (errno != ENOENT)
1210 fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: open %s: %s\en", setgroups_path,
1215 if (write(fd, str, strlen(str)) == \-1)
1216 fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: write %s: %s\en", setgroups_path,
1222 static int /* Start function for cloned child */
1223 childFunc(void *arg)
1225 struct child_args *args = arg;
1228 /* Wait until the parent has updated the UID and GID mappings.
1229 See the comment in main(). We wait for end of file on a
1230 pipe that will be closed by the parent process once it has
1231 updated the mappings. */
1233 close(args\->pipe_fd[1]); /* Close our descriptor for the write
1234 end of the pipe so that we see EOF
1235 when parent closes its descriptor. */
1236 if (read(args\->pipe_fd[0], &ch, 1) != 0) {
1238 "Failure in child: read from pipe returned != 0\en");
1242 close(args\->pipe_fd[0]);
1244 /* Execute a shell command. */
1246 printf("About to exec %s\en", args\->argv[0]);
1247 execvp(args\->argv[0], args\->argv);
1251 #define STACK_SIZE (1024 * 1024)
1253 static char child_stack[STACK_SIZE]; /* Space for child\(aqs stack */
1256 main(int argc, char *argv[])
1258 int flags, opt, map_zero;
1260 struct child_args args;
1261 char *uid_map, *gid_map;
1262 const int MAP_BUF_SIZE = 100;
1263 char map_buf[MAP_BUF_SIZE];
1264 char map_path[PATH_MAX];
1266 /* Parse command\-line options. The initial \(aq+\(aq character in
1267 the final getopt() argument prevents GNU\-style permutation
1268 of command\-line options. That\(aqs useful, since sometimes
1269 the \(aqcommand\(aq to be executed by this program itself
1270 has command\-line options. We don\(aqt want getopt() to treat
1271 those as options to this program. */
1278 while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "+imnpuUM:G:zv")) != \-1) {
1280 case \(aqi\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWIPC; break;
1281 case \(aqm\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWNS; break;
1282 case \(aqn\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWNET; break;
1283 case \(aqp\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWPID; break;
1284 case \(aqu\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWUTS; break;
1285 case \(aqv\(aq: verbose = 1; break;
1286 case \(aqz\(aq: map_zero = 1; break;
1287 case \(aqM\(aq: uid_map = optarg; break;
1288 case \(aqG\(aq: gid_map = optarg; break;
1289 case \(aqU\(aq: flags |= CLONE_NEWUSER; break;
1290 default: usage(argv[0]);
1294 /* \-M or \-G without \-U is nonsensical */
1296 if (((uid_map != NULL || gid_map != NULL || map_zero) &&
1297 !(flags & CLONE_NEWUSER)) ||
1298 (map_zero && (uid_map != NULL || gid_map != NULL)))
1301 args.argv = &argv[optind];
1303 /* We use a pipe to synchronize the parent and child, in order to
1304 ensure that the parent sets the UID and GID maps before the child
1305 calls execve(). This ensures that the child maintains its
1306 capabilities during the execve() in the common case where we
1307 want to map the child\(aqs effective user ID to 0 in the new user
1308 namespace. Without this synchronization, the child would lose
1309 its capabilities if it performed an execve() with nonzero
1310 user IDs (see the capabilities(7) man page for details of the
1311 transformation of a process\(aqs capabilities during execve()). */
1313 if (pipe(args.pipe_fd) == \-1)
1316 /* Create the child in new namespace(s). */
1318 child_pid = clone(childFunc, child_stack + STACK_SIZE,
1319 flags | SIGCHLD, &args);
1320 if (child_pid == \-1)
1323 /* Parent falls through to here. */
1326 printf("%s: PID of child created by clone() is %jd\en",
1327 argv[0], (intmax_t) child_pid);
1329 /* Update the UID and GID maps in the child. */
1331 if (uid_map != NULL || map_zero) {
1332 snprintf(map_path, PATH_MAX, "/proc/%jd/uid_map",
1333 (intmax_t) child_pid);
1335 snprintf(map_buf, MAP_BUF_SIZE, "0 %jd 1",
1336 (intmax_t) getuid());
1339 update_map(uid_map, map_path);
1342 if (gid_map != NULL || map_zero) {
1343 proc_setgroups_write(child_pid, "deny");
1345 snprintf(map_path, PATH_MAX, "/proc/%jd/gid_map",
1346 (intmax_t) child_pid);
1348 snprintf(map_buf, MAP_BUF_SIZE, "0 %ld 1",
1349 (intmax_t) getgid());
1352 update_map(gid_map, map_path);
1355 /* Close the write end of the pipe, to signal to the child that we
1356 have updated the UID and GID maps. */
1358 close(args.pipe_fd[1]);
1360 if (waitpid(child_pid, NULL, 0) == \-1) /* Wait for child */
1364 printf("%s: terminating\en", argv[0]);
1370 .BR newgidmap (1), \" From the shadow package
1371 .BR newuidmap (1), \" From the shadow package
1377 .BR subgid (5), \" From the shadow package
1378 .BR subuid (5), \" From the shadow package
1379 .BR capabilities (7),
1380 .BR cgroup_namespaces (7),
1381 .BR credentials (7),
1383 .BR pid_namespaces (7)
1385 The kernel source file
1386 .IR Documentation/admin\-guide/namespaces/resource\-control.rst .