Simple POC program to to demonstrate chroot without root using user namespaces.

user_chroot.cc

// g++ -o user_chroot user_chroot.cc
// references:
// [1]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/user_namespaces.7.html
// [2]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/unshare.2.html

#include <sched.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>

#include <cerrno>
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstring>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    if(argc < 2) {
        printf("Usage: %s <rootfs>\n", argv[0]);
    }

    int uid = getuid();
    int gid = getgid();
    printf("Before unshare, uid=%d, gid=%d\n", uid, gid);

    // First, unshare the user namespace and assume admin capability in the
    // new namespace
    int err = unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER);
    if(err) {
        printf("Failed to unshare user namespace\n");
        return 1;
    }

    // write a uid/pid map
    char file_path_buf[100];
    int pid = getpid();
    printf("My pid: %d\n", pid);

    sprintf(file_path_buf, "/proc/%d/uid_map", pid);
    int fd = open(file_path_buf, O_WRONLY);
    if(fd == -1) {
        printf("Failed to open %s for write [%d] %s\n", file_path_buf, errno, 
               strerror(errno));
    } else {
        printf("Writing : %s (fd=%d)\n", file_path_buf, fd);
        err = dprintf(fd, "%d %d 1\n", uid, uid);
        if(err == -1) {
            printf("Failed to write contents [%d]: %s\n", errno, 
                   strerror(errno));
        }
        close(fd);
    }

    sprintf(file_path_buf, "/proc/%d/setgroups", pid);
    fd = open(file_path_buf, O_WRONLY);
    if(fd == -1) {
        printf("Failed to open %s for write [%d] %s\n", file_path_buf, errno, 
               strerror(errno));
    } else {
        dprintf(fd, "deny\n");
        close(fd);
    }

    sprintf(file_path_buf, "/proc/%d/gid_map", pid);
    fd = open(file_path_buf, O_WRONLY);
    if(fd == -1) {
        printf("Failed to open %s for write [%d] %s\n", file_path_buf, errno, 
               strerror(errno));
    } else {
        printf("Writing : %s (fd=%d)\n", file_path_buf, fd);
        err = dprintf(fd, "%d %d 1\n", gid, gid);
        if(err == -1) {
            printf("Failed to write contents [%d]: %s\n", errno, 
                   strerror(errno));
        }
        close(fd);
    }

    // Now chroot into the desired directory
    err = chroot(argv[1]);
    if(err) {
        printf("Failed to chroot\n");
        return 1;
    }

    // Now drop admin in our namespace
    err = setresuid(uid, uid, uid);
    if(err) {
        printf("Failed to set uid\n");
    }

    err = setresgid(gid, gid, gid);
    if(err) {
        printf("Failed to set gid\n");
    }

    // and start a shell
    char argv0[] = "bash";
    char* new_argv[] = {
        argv0,
        NULL
    };

    err = execvp("/bin/bash", new_argv);
    if(err) {
        perror("Failed to start shell");
        return -1;
    }
}