microsoft / microsoft/WSL

Mount a drive into WSL distro owned by a restricted user

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#9,406 12 comments 24 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
feature
Dominant language
C++
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Description

**Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.**
I use Windows and WSL as a restricted user. However, mounting drives is only possible for Windows elevated admin account.
I have access to admin account. However, it does not have access to restricted user's WSL distrubutions.

**Describe the solution you'd like**
A way to mount a drive into restricted user WSL distributions, given user has access to elevated admin account.

**Additional context**

Restricted user:
```
C:\Users\User>wsl.exe -l -v
NAME STATE VERSION
* Ubuntu Running 2
Alpine Stopped 2
Ubuntu-20.04 Stopped 2

C:\Users\User>wsl.exe --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 --partition 1
Administrator access is needed to mount a disk.
Error code: Wsl/Service/AttachDisk/WSL_E_ELEVATION_NEEDED_TO_MOUNT_DISK
```

If Admin has no installed distributions:
```
C:\Windows\system32>wsl.exe --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 --partition 1
This operation is only supported by WSL2.
Error code: Wsl/Service/AttachDisk/WSL_E_WSL2_NEEDED

C:\Windows\system32>C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wsl.exe -l -v
Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.

...
```

If Admin has installed distributions, mounting succeeds for Admin but disk is only visible in Admin's distributions.

**Versions**
```
>wsl --version
WSL version: 1.0.3.0
Kernel version: 5.15.79.1
WSLg version: 1.0.47
MSRDC version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D version: 1.606.4
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.19045.2364
```

**Related/Duplicates**
#6147, #2979, #6414

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reviewing related issues #6147, #2979, and #6414, then trace how `wsl.exe --mount` resolves the elevated user's WSL distributions. Define the ownership and access behavior for mounting a drive into a restricted user's distribution, and verify it using the supplied restricted-user and administrator scenarios.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp, linux
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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