Linux Security Goes Beyond Root: Capabilities, Namespaces and eBPF Explained
Modern Linux security is far more complex than the traditional user-process-root model, involving multiple layered mechanisms between a process and kernel resources. Applications interact with the kernel through system calls, which are evaluated against controls including capabilities, namespaces, seccomp, and Linux Security Modules. Rather than granting full root access, Linux allows individual capabilities to be assigned, enabling services to hold only the specific privileges they need. In container environments, best practice is to drop all capabilities by default and add only those genuinely required by the application. CAP_SYS_ADMIN is flagged as especially risky, as its broad scope can effectively nullify container isolation if granted carelessly.
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