bug(allowedpaths): cannot read /var/log/containers logs in Kubernetes/container environments due to symlinks

[AlexandreYang]

Summary

In containerized Kubernetes deployments, reading log files from /var/log/containers/ fails with a path escapes from parent error, even when the directory is included in AllowedPaths.

Root Cause

On Kubernetes nodes, /var/log/containers/*.log files are symlinks pointing into /var/log/pods/...:

/var/log/containers/some-pod_namespace_container-<hash>.log -> /var/log/pods/.../0.log

rshell's AllowedPaths sandbox is backed by Go's os.Root / openat syscall, which rejects symlinks whose targets escape the configured root. Since the symlink target (/var/log/pods/...) escapes the root set to e.g. /host/var/log, the read fails.

Error

cat: /host/var/log/containers/<pod-name>.log: openat <pod-name>.log: path escapes from parent

Observed Behavior

• Reading files from /var/log/pods/ works fine (no symlinks involved).
• Reading files from /var/log/containers/ fails — these are symlinks into /var/log/pods/.
• Adding a second allowed root (e.g. /var/log) does not resolve the issue: os.Root cannot follow a symlink from one root into another.

Expected Behavior

Log files in /var/log/containers/ should be readable when the directory is within AllowedPaths, since the symlink targets ultimately resolve to files on the same node filesystem.

Additional Notes

• ls does not display symlink targets (-> destination), making this hard to diagnose from inside the shell. Improving ls -l to show symlink info would help operators debug this class of issue.
• The underlying general problem of symlinks crossing allowed-path roots is tracked separately.