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37 lines
1.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
37 lines
1.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
5 years ago
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########
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Security
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########
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The authors of this library tried their best to make sure that nothing bad happens, but they are only human. Thus:
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.. warning:: Use this library at your own risk.
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Running as root
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***************
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The library goes to great length to make sure everything passed to the operating system is safe. Due to the nature of
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operating systems, many tasks can only be carried out with elevated privileges, commonly running with the privileges
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of the user ``root``. This means that care must be taken when using it with elevated privileges!
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Thankfully, ZFS allows to delegate permission to some extend, allowing a user or a group on the local system to carry
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out administrative tasks. One exception is mounting, which is handled in the next paragraph.
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It is suggested to take a look at the ``zfs(8)`` manpage, especially the part that covers ``zfs allow``.
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.. _the_mount_problem:
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The mount problem
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*****************
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On Linux, only root is allowed to manipulate the global namespace. This means that no amount of ``zfs allow`` will
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allow any other user to mount a fileset. They can be created with the ``mountpoint`` property set, but can't be
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mounted. One workaround is to specify ``legacy``, and usr ``/etc/fstab`` to mount it, the other is to install and use
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a special privilege escalation helper.
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There are two places where it is needed to have **root** privileges: Setting or changing the ``mountpoint`` property
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of a fileset. For this, a helper program is provided as an example. It is intended to be edited by the administrator
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before use.
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Installed **setuid root**, it allows the caller to mount a fileset if it is below a hardcoded (by the administrator
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of the system) dataset and targets a hardcoded subtree of the local filesystem hierarchy. The path to that helper has
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to be passed to the create function for filesets.
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