cgroup_namespaces(7) — Linux manual page
cgroup...espaces(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual cgroup...espaces(7)
NAME
cgroup_namespaces - overview of Linux cgroup namespaces
DESCRIPTION
For an overview of namespaces, see namespaces(7).
Cgroup namespaces virtualize the view of a process's cgroups (see
cgroups(7)) as seen via /proc/pid/cgroup and /proc/pid/mountinfo.
Each cgroup namespace has its own set of cgroup root directories.
These root directories are the base points for the relative
locations displayed in the corresponding records in the
/proc/pid/cgroup file. When a process creates a new cgroup
namespace using clone(2) or unshare(2) with the CLONE_NEWCGROUP
flag, its current cgroups directories become the cgroup root
directories of the new namespace. (This applies both for the
cgroups version 1 hierarchies and the cgroups version 2 unified
hierarchy.)
When reading the cgroup memberships of a "target" process from
/proc/pid/cgroup, the pathname shown in the third field of each
record will be relative to the reading process's root directory
for the corresponding cgroup hierarchy. If the cgroup directory
of the target process lies outside the root directory of the
reading process's cgroup namespace, then the pathname will show
../ entries for each ancestor level in the cgroup hierarchy.
The following shell session demonstrates the effect of creating a
new cgroup namespace.
First, (as superuser) in a shell in the initial cgroup namespace,
we create a child cgroup in the freezer hierarchy, and place a
process in that cgroup that we will use as part of the
demonstration below:
# mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer/sub2
# sleep 10000 & # Create a process that lives for a while
[1] 20124
# echo 20124 > /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer/sub2/cgroup.procs
We then create another child cgroup in the freezer hierarchy and
put the shell into that cgroup:
# mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer/sub
# echo $$ # Show PID of this shell
30655
# echo 30655 > /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer/sub/cgroup.procs
# cat /proc/self/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/sub
Next, we use unshare(1) to create a process running a new shell
in new cgroup and mount namespaces:
# PS1="sh2# " unshare -Cm bash
From the new shell started by unshare(1), we then inspect the
/proc/pid/cgroup files of, respectively, the new shell, a process
that is in the initial cgroup namespace (init, with PID 1), and
the process in the sibling cgroup (sub2):
sh2# cat /proc/self/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/
sh2# cat /proc/1/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/..
sh2# cat /proc/20124/cgroup | grep freezer
7:freezer:/../sub2
From the output of the first command, we see that the freezer
cgroup membership of the new shell (which is in the same cgroup
as the initial shell) is shown defined relative to the freezer
cgroup root directory that was established when the new cgroup
namespace was created. (In absolute terms, the new shell is in
the /sub freezer cgroup, and the root directory of the freezer
cgroup hierarchy in the new cgroup namespace is also /sub. Thus,
the new shell's cgroup membership is displayed as '/'.)
However, when we look in /proc/self/mountinfo we see the
following anomaly:
sh2# cat /proc/self/mountinfo | grep freezer
155 145 0:32 /.. /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer ...
The fourth field of this line (/..) should show the directory in
the cgroup filesystem which forms the root of this mount. Since
by the definition of cgroup namespaces, the process's current
freezer cgroup directory became its root freezer cgroup
directory, we should see '/' in this field. The problem here is
that we are seeing a mount entry for the cgroup filesystem
corresponding to the initial cgroup namespace (whose cgroup
filesystem is indeed rooted at the parent directory of sub). To
fix this problem, we must remount the freezer cgroup filesystem
from the new shell (i.e., perform the mount from a process that
is in the new cgroup namespace), after which we see the expected
results:
sh2# mount --make-rslave / # Don't propagate mount events
# to other namespaces
sh2# umount /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer
sh2# mount -t cgroup -o freezer freezer /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer
sh2# cat /proc/self/mountinfo | grep freezer
155 145 0:32 / /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer rw,relatime ...
STANDARDS
Linux.
NOTES
Use of cgroup namespaces requires a kernel that is configured
with the CONFIG_CGROUPS option.
The virtualization provided by cgroup namespaces serves a number
of purposes:
• It prevents information leaks whereby cgroup directory paths
outside of a container would otherwise be visible to processes
in the container. Such leakages could, for example, reveal
information about the container framework to containerized
applications.
• It eases tasks such as container migration. The
virtualization provided by cgroup namespaces allows containers
to be isolated from knowledge of the pathnames of ancestor
cgroups. Without such isolation, the full cgroup pathnames
(displayed in /proc/self/cgroups) would need to be replicated
on the target system when migrating a container; those
pathnames would also need to be unique, so that they don't
conflict with other pathnames on the target system.
• It allows better confinement of containerized processes,
because it is possible to mount the container's cgroup
filesystems such that the container processes can't gain
access to ancestor cgroup directories. Consider, for example,
the following scenario:
• We have a cgroup directory, /cg/1, that is owned by user ID
9000.
• We have a process, X, also owned by user ID 9000, that is
namespaced under the cgroup /cg/1/2 (i.e., X was placed in
a new cgroup namespace via clone(2) or unshare(2) with the
CLONE_NEWCGROUP flag).
In the absence of cgroup namespacing, because the cgroup
directory /cg/1 is owned (and writable) by UID 9000 and
process X is also owned by user ID 9000, process X would be
able to modify the contents of cgroups files (i.e., change
cgroup settings) not only in /cg/1/2 but also in the ancestor
cgroup directory /cg/1. Namespacing process X under the
cgroup directory /cg/1/2, in combination with suitable mount
operations for the cgroup filesystem (as shown above),
prevents it modifying files in /cg/1, since it cannot even see
the contents of that directory (or of further removed cgroup
ancestor directories). Combined with correct enforcement of
hierarchical limits, this prevents process X from escaping the
limits imposed by ancestor cgroups.
SEE ALSO
unshare(1), clone(2), setns(2), unshare(2), proc(5), cgroups(7),
credentials(7), namespaces(7), user_namespaces(7)
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Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-05-02 cgroup...espaces(7)
Pages that refer to this page: nsenter(1), unshare(1), clone(2), lttng-ust(3), cgroups(7), namespaces(7), user_namespaces(7)