opencontainers / opencontainers/runc

Document security implications of using rootless containers

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area/docs area/rootless
Dominant language
Go
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Description

"Docker containers are, by default, quite secure" (cite) - runc containers (at least how they are configured in Docker) try to be quite secure for running untrusted code.
It is possible to drop all capabilities, run process inside container as non-root user, etc, and have good enough sandbox for untrusted code (of course with lots of nuances, attack vectors and not found/disclosed vulnerabilities of the Linux kernel).

What are security implications of rootless containers?
Is processes in rootless container are well confined to run untrusted code (in ideal world when there is no vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel)?
How processes from rootless container can influence host system or user processes outside container?

For example, I see that cgroups are not always configured for rootless container, this probably means that process inside rootless container can start fork-bomb and exhaust host resources (just an example, not sure is this true).

It would be nice to have this documented.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the linked Docker security conclusions and the issue's questions about rootless containers, cgroups, capabilities, and host or user-process isolation. Determine what can be documented about confinement and resource exhaustion, then produce documentation that clearly explains the security implications and limitations.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker, linux
Domain
documentation, security
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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