Seccomp security profiles for Docker

Secure computing mode (Seccomp) is a Linux kernel feature. You can use it to restrict the actions available within the container. The seccomp() system call operates on the seccomp state of the calling process. You can use this feature to restrict your application’s access.

This feature is available only if Docker has been built with seccomp and the kernel is configured with CONFIG_SECCOMP enabled. To check if your kernel supports seccomp:

$ cat /boot/config-`uname -r` | grep CONFIG_SECCOMP=
CONFIG_SECCOMP=y

Note: seccomp profiles require seccomp 2.2.1 and are only available starting with Debian 9 “Stretch”, Ubuntu 15.10 “Wily”, Fedora 22, CentOS 7 and Oracle Linux 7. To use this feature on Ubuntu 14.04, Debian Wheezy, or Debian Jessie, you must download the latest static Docker Linux binary. This feature is currently not available on other distributions.

Passing a profile for a container

The default seccomp profile provides a sane default for running containers with seccomp and disables around 44 system calls out of 300+. It is moderately protective while providing wide application compatibility. The default Docker profile (found here) has a JSON layout in the following form:

{
	"defaultAction": "SCMP_ACT_ERRNO",
	"architectures": [
		"SCMP_ARCH_X86_64",
		"SCMP_ARCH_X86",
		"SCMP_ARCH_X32"
	],
	"syscalls": [
		{
			"name": "accept",
			"action": "SCMP_ACT_ALLOW",
			"args": []
		},
		{
			"name": "accept4",
			"action": "SCMP_ACT_ALLOW",
			"args": []
		},
		...
	]
}

When you run a container, it uses the default profile unless you override it with the security-opt option. For example, the following explicitly specifies the default policy:

$ docker run --rm -it --security-opt seccomp=/path/to/seccomp/profile.json hello-world

Significant syscalls blocked by the default profile

Docker’s default seccomp profile is a whitelist which specifies the calls that are allowed. The table below lists the significant (but not all) syscalls that are effectively blocked because they are not on the whitelist. The table includes the reason each syscall is blocked rather than white-listed.

Syscall	Description
acct	Accounting syscall which could let containers disable their own resource limits or process accounting. Also gated by CAP_SYS_PACCT.
add_key	Prevent containers from using the kernel keyring, which is not namespaced.
adjtimex	Similar to clock_settime and settimeofday, time/date is not namespaced.
bpf	Deny loading potentially persistent bpf programs into kernel, already gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
clock_adjtime	Time/date is not namespaced.
clock_settime	Time/date is not namespaced.
clone	Deny cloning new namespaces. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN for CLONE_* flags, except CLONE_USERNS.
create_module	Deny manipulation and functions on kernel modules.
delete_module	Deny manipulation and functions on kernel modules. Also gated by CAP_SYS_MODULE.
finit_module	Deny manipulation and functions on kernel modules. Also gated by CAP_SYS_MODULE.
get_kernel_syms	Deny retrieval of exported kernel and module symbols.
get_mempolicy	Syscall that modifies kernel memory and NUMA settings. Already gated by CAP_SYS_NICE.
init_module	Deny manipulation and functions on kernel modules. Also gated by CAP_SYS_MODULE.
ioperm	Prevent containers from modifying kernel I/O privilege levels. Already gated by CAP_SYS_RAWIO.
iopl	Prevent containers from modifying kernel I/O privilege levels. Already gated by CAP_SYS_RAWIO.
kcmp	Restrict process inspection capabilities, already blocked by dropping CAP_PTRACE.
kexec_file_load	Sister syscall of kexec_load that does the same thing, slightly different arguments.
kexec_load	Deny loading a new kernel for later execution.
keyctl	Prevent containers from using the kernel keyring, which is not namespaced.
lookup_dcookie	Tracing/profiling syscall, which could leak a lot of information on the host.
mbind	Syscall that modifies kernel memory and NUMA settings. Already gated by CAP_SYS_NICE.
mount	Deny mounting, already gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
move_pages	Syscall that modifies kernel memory and NUMA settings.
name_to_handle_at	Sister syscall to open_by_handle_at. Already gated by CAP_SYS_NICE.
nfsservctl	Deny interaction with the kernel nfs daemon.
open_by_handle_at	Cause of an old container breakout. Also gated by CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH.
perf_event_open	Tracing/profiling syscall, which could leak a lot of information on the host.
personality	Prevent container from enabling BSD emulation. Not inherently dangerous, but poorly tested, potential for a lot of kernel vulns.
pivot_root	Deny pivot_root, should be privileged operation.
process_vm_readv	Restrict process inspection capabilities, already blocked by dropping CAP_PTRACE.
process_vm_writev	Restrict process inspection capabilities, already blocked by dropping CAP_PTRACE.
ptrace	Tracing/profiling syscall, which could leak a lot of information on the host. Already blocked by dropping CAP_PTRACE.
query_module	Deny manipulation and functions on kernel modules.
quotactl	Quota syscall which could let containers disable their own resource limits or process accounting. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
reboot	Don’t let containers reboot the host. Also gated by CAP_SYS_BOOT.
request_key	Prevent containers from using the kernel keyring, which is not namespaced.
set_mempolicy	Syscall that modifies kernel memory and NUMA settings. Already gated by CAP_SYS_NICE.
setns	Deny associating a thread with a namespace. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
settimeofday	Time/date is not namespaced. Also gated by CAP_SYS_TIME.
stime	Time/date is not namespaced. Also gated by CAP_SYS_TIME.
swapon	Deny start/stop swapping to file/device. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
swapoff	Deny start/stop swapping to file/device. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
sysfs	Obsolete syscall.
_sysctl	Obsolete, replaced by /proc/sys.
umount	Should be a privileged operation. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
umount2	Should be a privileged operation.
unshare	Deny cloning new namespaces for processes. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN, with the exception of unshare --user.
uselib	Older syscall related to shared libraries, unused for a long time.
userfaultfd	Userspace page fault handling, largely needed for process migration.
ustat	Obsolete syscall.
vm86	In kernel x86 real mode virtual machine. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.
vm86old	In kernel x86 real mode virtual machine. Also gated by CAP_SYS_ADMIN.

Run without the default seccomp profile

You can pass unconfined to run a container without the default seccomp profile.

$ docker run --rm -it --security-opt seccomp=unconfined debian:jessie \
    unshare --map-root-user --user sh -c whoami