[BUG] Setting secrets using "environment:" instead of "file:" works only using root in container/service

[jawys]

Description

Background

Hello there!
While developing using compose, my primary deploy target is swarm so I am using file secrets most of the time.

Finding

While trying to make the development process more convenient using compose, I started overriding also the file: directive in the root-level secrets with environment: using the compose.override.yml.

Recently I noticed the following error while the USER running in the container is not root but, e.g. node using the node:alpine image: Error response from daemon: getent unable to find entry "node" in passwd database

Question(s)

Is this the expected result I have to deal with because compose just mimics the features of swarm?

Has someone a hint how to make running the desired non-root user plus environment feeded secrets work, while dealing with the differences between "stack deploy" and "compose up"?

Steps To Reproduce

From: https://github.com/jawys/test-compose-secrets-environment

1. Copy the following compose.yaml

   version: "3.8"
   
   secrets:
     api_pass:
       environment: SOME_API_PASS
   
   services:
     backend:
       image: node:alpine
       environment:
         - API_PASS_FILE=/run/secrets/api_pass
       secrets:
         - source: api_pass
       command:
         - sh
         - -c
         - set -x; ls -la /run/secrets; id
       user: node
   
   name: test-compose-secrets-environment

2. Run docker compose up with SOME_API_PASS env set inline

   ❯ SOME_API_PASS=SOME_API_PASS docker compose -f compose.yaml up
   [+] Running 1/2
   ✔ Network test-compose-secrets-environment_default      Created              0.0s
   ⠋ Container test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  Creating             0.0s
   Error response from daemon: getent unable to find entry "node" in passwd database

3. Seeing an error?! Try again...

   ❯ SOME_API_PASS=SOME_API_PASS docker compose -f compose.yaml up
   Attaching to test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | + ls -la /run/secrets
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | ls: /run/secrets: No such file or directory
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | uid=1000(node) gid=1000(node) groups=1000(node)
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | + id
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1 exited with code 0

4. Comment out user: node directive so that user is root

   --- a/compose.yaml
   +++ b/compose.yaml
   @@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ services:
         - sh
         - -c
         - set -x; ls -la /run/secrets; id
   -    user: node
   +    # user: node
   
   name: test-compose-secrets-environment

5. Run compose up again running the container as root

   ❯ SOME_API_PASS=SOME_API_PASS docker compose -f compose.yaml up
   [+] Running 1/1
   ✔ Container test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  Recreated            0.1s
   Attaching to test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | + ls -la /run/secrets
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | /run/secrets:
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | total 12
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root          4096 May 22 13:36 .
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root          4096 May 22 13:36 ..
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | -r--------    1 root     root            13 May 22 13:36 api_pass
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | + id
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1  | uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel),11(floppy),20(dialout),26(tape),27(video)
   test-compose-secrets-environment-backend-1 exited with code 0

Compose Version

❯ docker compose version ; docker-compose version
Docker Compose version v2.17.3
Docker Compose version v2.17.3

Docker Environment

❯ docker info
Client:
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.10.4
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.17.3
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  dev: Docker Dev Environments (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.0
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.19
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.0-beta.4
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scan: Docker Scan (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.26.0
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan
  scout: Command line tool for Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.10.0
    Path:     /Users/jan/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout

Server:
 Containers: 62
  Running: 12
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 50
 Images: 47
 Server Version: 23.0.5
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local logentries splunk syslog
 Swarm: active
  NodeID: 8oy48bax3dyaf4ynlyqxn57n1
  Is Manager: true
  ClusterID: yj2jkmvdi1wnp7lfng9f5zfpy
  Managers: 1
  Nodes: 1
  Default Address Pool: 10.0.0.0/8  
  SubnetSize: 24
  Data Path Port: 4789
  Orchestration:
   Task History Retention Limit: 5
  Raft:
   Snapshot Interval: 10000
   Number of Old Snapshots to Retain: 0
   Heartbeat Tick: 1
   Election Tick: 10
  Dispatcher:
   Heartbeat Period: 5 seconds
  CA Configuration:
   Expiry Duration: 3 months
   Force Rotate: 0
  Autolock Managers: false
  Root Rotation In Progress: false
  Node Address: 192.168.65.3
  Manager Addresses:
   192.168.65.3:2377
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 2806fc1057397dbaeefbea0e4e17bddfbd388f38
 runc version: v1.1.5-0-gf19387a
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 5.15.49-linuxkit
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: aarch64
 CPUs: 4
 Total Memory: 15.61GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 00936b35-ea60-4a06-85aa-b7bc97079fab
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

Anything else?

• minimal example here: https://github.com/jawys/test-compose-secrets-environment
• using Docker Desktop 4.19.0 (106363) (is currently the newest version available)

[ndeloof]

same issue applies to a plain docker cp command asking engine to apply uid/gid:

$ docker cp ./foo test-backend-1:/tmp/test -a
                                             Successfully copied 1.54kB to test-backend-1:/tmp/test
Error response from daemon: getent unable to find entry "node" in passwd database

seems to be a known issue : moby/moby#34142