Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Well, I can't guarantee there are no kernel bugs in user namespaces, but the work that Eric and others have done to make user namespaces more secure does make me personally confident about running machines that have CONFIG_USERNS=y.

If you have SELinux, AppArmor, SMACK, Yama, or even good seccomp filters set up then I would classify it as "relatively" secure (most of the security issues in user namespaces have revolved around POSIX ACLs providing access where it doesn't make sense -- supplementing those ACLs with something like SELinux will eliminate entire classes of bugs).

Ultimately though, security is relative. Is a kernel that has CONFIG_USERNS=n more secure than one that doesn't? Yes (because it has less code running) but that doesn't mean that CONFIG_USERNS=y is insecure (it depends on what your paranoia level is dialed to).




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: