Files
nixpkgs/nixos/modules/programs/shadow.nix
r-vdp 1ac3c5dc99 nixos/shadow: use file capabilities for newuidmap/newgidmap
Writing a multi-line /proc/<pid>/[ug]id_map only requires
CAP_SETUID/CAP_SETGID over the parent user namespace, not full root.
shadow's own --with-fcaps install mode (70971457b761) sets exactly
cap_setuid+ep / cap_setgid+ep, and Arch, Fedora and Debian have shipped
these binaries with file capabilities instead of setuid for years.

The setuid variant already drops to the same single capability before
the uid_map write (see lib/idmapping.c), so the privilege at the point
attacker-controlled data reaches the kernel is unchanged. The reduction
is in the startup window: with file capabilities the process never has
euid 0 and never holds the full capability set during NSS lookups,
/etc/subuid parsing and /proc/<pid> opening.

The only functional difference is that mapping host uid 0 into a child
namespace additionally needs CAP_SETFCAP, which the setuid path got
implicitly. NixOS never puts uid 0 into auto-allocated subuid ranges,
and granting it manually is a deliberate root-equivalent configuration;
the release notes document the override for that case.

nixosTests.{shadow,podman,docker-rootless} pass; the latter two
exercise newuidmap/newgidmap via rootless containers.

Supersedes #461172.

Co-authored-by: Rasheeq Azad <rasheeqhere@gmail.com>
2026-06-01 00:18:28 +03:00

294 lines
10 KiB
Nix

# Configuration for the pwdutils suite of tools: passwd, useradd, etc.
{
config,
lib,
utils,
pkgs,
...
}:
let
cfg = config.security.loginDefs;
in
{
options = {
security.shadow.enable = lib.mkEnableOption "" // {
default = true;
description = ''
Enable the shadow authentication suite, which provides critical programs such as su, login, passwd.
Note: This is currently experimental. Only disable this if you're
confident that you can recover your system if it breaks.
'';
};
security.shadow.su.package = lib.mkPackageOption pkgs [ "shadow" "su" ] {
extraDescription = ''
This can be overridden by other modules (e.g. sudo-rs) to provide
an alternative `su` implementation.
'';
};
security.loginDefs = {
package = lib.mkPackageOption pkgs "shadow" { };
chfnRestrict = lib.mkOption {
description = ''
Use chfn SUID to allow non-root users to change their account GECOS information.
'';
type = lib.types.nullOr lib.types.str;
default = null;
};
settings = lib.mkOption {
description = ''
Config options for the /etc/login.defs file, that defines
the site-specific configuration for the shadow password suite.
See {manpage}`login.defs(5)` man page for available options.
'';
type = lib.types.submodule {
freeformType = (pkgs.formats.keyValue { }).type;
/*
There are three different sources for user/group id ranges, each of which gets
used by different programs:
- The login.defs file, used by the useradd, groupadd and newusers commands
- The update-users-groups.pl file, used by NixOS in the activation phase to
decide on which ids to use for declaratively defined users without a static
id
- Systemd compile time options -Dsystem-uid-max= and -Dsystem-gid-max=, used
by systemd for features like ConditionUser=@system and systemd-sysusers
*/
options = {
DEFAULT_HOME = lib.mkOption {
description = "Indicate if login is allowed if we can't cd to the home directory.";
default = "yes";
type = lib.types.enum [
"yes"
"no"
];
};
ENCRYPT_METHOD = lib.mkOption {
description = "This defines the system default encryption algorithm for encrypting passwords.";
# The default crypt() method, keep in sync with the PAM default
default = "YESCRYPT";
type = lib.types.enum [
"YESCRYPT"
"SHA512"
"SHA256"
"MD5"
"DES"
];
};
SYS_UID_MIN = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of user IDs used for the creation of system users by useradd or newusers.";
default = 400;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
SYS_UID_MAX = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of user IDs used for the creation of system users by useradd or newusers.";
default = 999;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
UID_MIN = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of user IDs used for the creation of regular users by useradd or newusers.";
default = 1000;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
UID_MAX = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of user IDs used for the creation of regular users by useradd or newusers.";
default = 29999;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
SYS_GID_MIN = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of group IDs used for the creation of system groups by useradd, groupadd, or newusers";
default = 400;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
SYS_GID_MAX = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of group IDs used for the creation of system groups by useradd, groupadd, or newusers";
default = 999;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
GID_MIN = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups by useradd, groupadd, or newusers.";
default = 1000;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
GID_MAX = lib.mkOption {
description = "Range of group IDs used for the creation of regular groups by useradd, groupadd, or newusers.";
default = 29999;
type = lib.types.ints.u32;
};
TTYGROUP = lib.mkOption {
description = ''
The terminal permissions: the login tty will be owned by the TTYGROUP group,
and the permissions will be set to TTYPERM'';
default = "tty";
type = lib.types.str;
};
TTYPERM = lib.mkOption {
description = ''
The terminal permissions: the login tty will be owned by the TTYGROUP group,
and the permissions will be set to TTYPERM'';
default = "0620";
type = lib.types.str;
};
# Ensure privacy for newly created home directories.
UMASK = lib.mkOption {
description = "The file mode creation mask is initialized to this value.";
default = "077";
type = lib.types.str;
};
};
};
default = { };
};
};
users.defaultUserShell = lib.mkOption {
description = ''
This option defines the default shell assigned to user
accounts. This can be either a full system path or a shell package.
This must not be a store path, since the path is
used outside the store (in particular in /etc/passwd).
'';
# /bin/sh is also the compiled in default of the shadow package.
default = "/bin/sh";
example = lib.literalExpression "pkgs.zsh";
type = lib.types.either lib.types.path lib.types.shellPackage;
};
};
###### implementation
config = lib.mkMerge [
{
assertions = [
{
assertion = config.security.shadow.enable || config.services.greetd.enable;
message = "You must enable at least one VT login method, either security.shadow.enable or services.greetd.enable";
}
];
}
(lib.mkIf config.security.shadow.enable {
assertions = [
{
assertion = cfg.settings.SYS_UID_MIN <= cfg.settings.SYS_UID_MAX;
message = "SYS_UID_MIN must be less than or equal to SYS_UID_MAX";
}
{
assertion = cfg.settings.UID_MIN <= cfg.settings.UID_MAX;
message = "UID_MIN must be less than or equal to UID_MAX";
}
{
assertion = cfg.settings.SYS_GID_MIN <= cfg.settings.SYS_GID_MAX;
message = "SYS_GID_MIN must be less than or equal to SYS_GID_MAX";
}
{
assertion = cfg.settings.GID_MIN <= cfg.settings.GID_MAX;
message = "GID_MIN must be less than or equal to GID_MAX";
}
];
security.loginDefs.settings.CHFN_RESTRICT = lib.mkIf (cfg.chfnRestrict != null) cfg.chfnRestrict;
environment.systemPackages =
lib.optional config.users.mutableUsers cfg.package
++ lib.optional (lib.types.shellPackage.check config.users.defaultUserShell) config.users.defaultUserShell
++ lib.optional (cfg.chfnRestrict != null) pkgs.util-linux;
environment.etc =
# Create custom toKeyValue generator
# see https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/login.defs.5.html for config specification
let
toKeyValue = lib.generators.toKeyValue {
mkKeyValue = lib.generators.mkKeyValueDefault { } " ";
};
in
{
# /etc/login.defs: global configuration for pwdutils.
# You cannot login without it!
"login.defs".source = pkgs.writeText "login.defs" (toKeyValue cfg.settings);
# /etc/default/useradd: configuration for useradd.
"default/useradd".source = pkgs.writeText "useradd" ''
GROUP=100
HOME=${config.users.defaultUserHome}
SHELL=${utils.toShellPath config.users.defaultUserShell}
'';
};
security.pam.services = {
chsh.rootOK = true;
chfn.rootOK = true;
su = {
rootOK = true;
forwardXAuth = true;
logFailures = true;
};
passwd = { };
# Note: useradd, groupadd etc. aren't setuid root, so it
# doesn't really matter what the PAM config says as long as it
# lets root in.
useradd.rootOK = true;
usermod.rootOK = true;
userdel.rootOK = true;
groupadd.rootOK = true;
groupmod.rootOK = true;
groupmems.rootOK = true;
groupdel.rootOK = true;
login = {
startSession = true;
allowNullPassword = true;
showMotd = true;
lastlog.enable = true;
};
chpasswd.rootOK = true;
};
security.wrappers =
let
mkSetuidRoot = source: {
setuid = true;
owner = "root";
group = "root";
inherit source;
};
mkCapRoot = capabilities: source: {
inherit capabilities source;
owner = "root";
group = "root";
};
in
{
su = mkSetuidRoot "${config.security.shadow.su.package}/bin/su";
sg = mkSetuidRoot "${cfg.package.out}/bin/sg";
newgrp = mkSetuidRoot "${cfg.package.out}/bin/newgrp";
# File capabilities instead of setuid root, mirroring shadow's
# own --with-fcaps install mode and what Arch/Fedora/Debian ship.
# The kernel only requires CAP_SETUID/CAP_SETGID over the parent
# userns to write a multi-line /proc/<pid>/[ug]id_map.
newuidmap = mkCapRoot "cap_setuid+ep" "${cfg.package.out}/bin/newuidmap";
newgidmap = mkCapRoot "cap_setgid+ep" "${cfg.package.out}/bin/newgidmap";
}
// lib.optionalAttrs config.users.mutableUsers {
chsh = mkSetuidRoot "${cfg.package.out}/bin/chsh";
passwd = mkSetuidRoot "${cfg.package.out}/bin/passwd";
};
})
];
}