Post #998802

2025-11-17 12:46 UTC

Let me be cheeky and preempt @pid_eins&#39;s systemd 259 posts: In systemd 259, I&#39;m making it possible to run commands that need privileges as your current user instead of as root. With &quot;run0 --empower&quot;, you&#39;ll get a session as your current user in which you can do anything that root would be able to do, without actually being root. This is very useful when you need to run something with privileges but still want all created files and directories to be owned by your current user. #systemd259

Replies (6)

@daandemeyer@mastodon.social 2025-11-17 12:47

I got inspired to implement this when I was playing around with bpftrace and systing and got annoyed that the files written by these tools were owned by root instead of my own user. Now I can run "run0 --empower bpftrace" and be sure that any written files are owned by own user instead of root.

Open ##1539622
@raito@nixos.paris 2025-11-17 12:49

@daandemeyer very niceeeeeeeeeeeeee

Open ##1539656
@toadjaune@hostux.social 2025-11-17 13:47

@daandemeyer @pid_eins that sounds like it has such a huge potential !

Open ##1539657
@r0b0@mas.to 2025-11-17 14:32

@daandemeyer @pid_eins that's a missed opportunity to call the switch "--elevate"

Open ##1539658
@nik@toot.teckids.org 2025-11-18 13:27

@daandemeyer @pid_eins Ouch. I can smell the security issues caused by people misusing that from here. That's a massive footgun.

Open ##1539660
@erindesu@tech.lgbt 2025-11-21 08:47

@daandemeyer @pid_eins neat! So first run0 goes after setuid and the next thing is cancelling the root account (yes please).

Open ##1539679