[Discuss] sandboxing web browsers

Richard Pieri richard.pieri at gmail.com
Sun Jun 21 13:38:36 EDT 2015


On 6/21/2015 12:59 PM, Tom Metro wrote:
> How about running FF in a Docker container, so not only do you get the
> privilege isolation from the different user, but also process isolation
> and file system isolation. It would be the next best thing to running it
> in a full VM, yet without the overhead.

Which in fact /reduces/ overall system security. Starting a Docker 
container requires root. This means users who would not otherwise be 
doing things as root must now be root to start their browsers. Does 
anyone else see the problem inherent in this?

Actually, at least one does:

https://fosterelli.co/privilege-escalation-via-docker.html

That's not even beginning to touch on the problems with updating the 
browsers. Because one doesn't update applications in a Docker container; 
one updates the whole container. So, what happens to custom 
configurations and add-ons and bookmarks and passwords and auto-fill 
forms and so forth?

Less security and less convenience? Sign me up?

No thank you.

-- 
Rich P.



More information about the Discuss mailing list