feat: migrate sandbox images to runtime numeric identity
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Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100
- Issue type
- Refactor
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Tech stack
- docker, dockerfile
- Domain
- devops, infrastructure
Research direction
Start with the Community base image and its derived sandbox image Dockerfiles, locating named account creation, chown operations, and final USER sandbox declarations. After NVIDIA/OpenShell#2331 is released, add the proposed image conformance tests and run representative images through each supported driver. Done means candidate images pass numeric-identity, writeability, shell/Git/tool, release compatibility, and available OpenShift SCC checks before latest moves.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Problem Statement
OpenShell-Community sandbox images still create and depend on a named sandbox user and group. Once OpenShell Docker and Podman support driver-injected numeric identities, that baked account becomes unnecessary and prevents the images from conforming to the same arbitrary-numeric-identity contract as Kubernetes and VM workloads.
This work depends on NVIDIA/OpenShell#2331 being released. It is part of the broader identity-removal tracking in NVIDIA/OpenShell#1959.
Proposed Design
After a compatible OpenShell release is available, remove named sandbox account creation and named ownership assumptions from the Community base image and all derived sandbox images. Keep the privileged supervisor account where it is required by the image runtime.
For direct docker run behavior, retain a non-root default using numeric USER 10001:10001; OpenShell itself may override that default to start the supervisor as root and selects the actual agent identity at runtime. Set HOME=/sandbox explicitly and make only the intended mutable sandbox paths writable by arbitrary non-root numeric identities. Do not make bundled credentials, policy, or immutable toolchains broadly writable.
Add image conformance tests that verify no sandbox passwd/group entry or pre-existing UID/GID 10001, then run the image as a numeric UID/GID absent from the image and verify /sandbox writeability and common shell/Git/tool behavior. Test one representative Community image through each supported OpenShell driver before moving latest.
Publish a candidate tag first. Do not move the no-user image to latest until it passes against the released compatible OpenShell version, including the OpenShift SCC identity check where available.
Alternatives Considered
- Remove only the final
USER sandbox: rejected becausechown sandbox:sandbox, copied ownership, startup scripts, and home-directory assumptions would remain. - Publish no-user Community images before Docker/Podman runtime support: rejected because userless BYOC images would fail on those drivers.
- Retire the Community base image as part of this change: out of scope. The base provides OS packages, toolchains, agents, policy, skills, and shell setup beyond the named account; retirement needs a separate replacement decision.
Agent Investigation
- The Community base and its derivatives contain named user/group creation, named
chownoperations, or finalUSER sandboxdeclarations. - A numeric Dockerfile
USERis only the standalone image default. In OpenShell-managed Docker/Podman sandboxes, the privileged supervisor starts first and launches the agent under the driver-resolved numeric identity. - This issue is intentionally downstream of NVIDIA/OpenShell#2331 and should not be implemented or published before that issue’s runtime support is released.
- Dominant language
- Dockerfile
- Stars
- 191
- Forks
- 76
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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