Firejail is a SUID sandbox program that reduces the risk of security breaches by restricting the running environment of untrusted applications using Linux namespaces, seccomp-bpf and Linux capabilities. It allows a process and all its descendants to have their own private view of the globally shared kernel resources, such as the network stack, process table, mount table. Firejail can work in a SELinux or AppArmor environment, and it is integrated with Linux Control Groups.
Written in C with virtually no dependencies, the software runs on any Linux computer with a 3.x kernel version or newer. It can sandbox any type of processes: servers, graphical applications, and even user login sessions. The software includes sandbox profiles for a number of more common Linux programs, such as Mozilla Firefox, Chromium, VLC, Transmission etc.
The sandbox is lightweight, the overhead is low. There are no complicated configuration files to edit, no socket connections open, no daemons running in the background. All security features are implemented directly in Linux kernel and available on any Linux computer. To start the sandbox, prefix your command with “firejail”:
$ firejail firefox # starting Mozilla Firefox
$ firejail transmission-gtk # starting Transmission BitTorrent
$ firejail vlc # starting VideoLAN Client
$ sudo firejail /etc/init.d/nginx start
Project webpage: https://firejail.wordpress.com/
Download and Installation: https://firejail.wordpress.com/download-2/
Features: https://firejail.wordpress.com/features-3/
Documentation: https://firejail.wordpress.com/documentation-2/
FAQ: https://firejail.wordpress.com/support/frequently-asked-questions/
$ git clone https://github.com/netblue30/firejail.git
$ cd firejail
$ ./configure && make && sudo make install-strip
On Debian/Ubuntu you will need to install git and a compiler:
$ sudo apt-get install git build-essential
If you keep your Firejail profiles in a public repository, please give us a link:
Use this issue to request new profiles: netblue30#1139
All --fix functionality is done by default in firecfg, --fix option was removed. Clicking on a program in desktop manager menu should start the program automatically in a sandbox, if a profile is available in /etc/firejail. We cover about 270 different applications in this moment on all major desktop managers.
Thunar (XFCE) and PCManFM (LXDE) file managers symlinks are installed in /usr/local/bin by firecfg. File managers are usually started by default at login time, and will be sandboxed. Clicking on a file in the file manager will start the corresponding program in the same sandbox as the file manager. For example, clicking on a video file will start a sandboxed VLC running the video. We support in this moment XFCE and LXDE, MATE will come next, followed by KDE and Gnome.
Added AppImage type 2 support, and support for passing command line arguments to appimages.
In this release we add support for Xvfb (X virtual framebuffer), an in-memory X display server. Xvfb allows the user to run graphical applications without a display (e.g., browser tests on a CI server) while also having the ability to take screenshots.
--x11=xvfb
Start Xvfb X11 server and attach the sandbox to this server.
Xvfb, short for X virtual framebuffer, performs all graphical
operations in memory without showing any screen output. Xvfb is
mainly used for remote access and software testing on headless
servers.
On Debian platforms Xvfb is installed with the command sudo apt-
get install xvfb. This feature is not available when running as
root.
Example: remote VNC access
On the server we start a sandbox using Xvfb and openbox window
manager. The default size of Xvfb screen is 800x600 - it can be
changed in /etc/firejail/firejail.config (xvfb-screen). Some
sort of networking (--net) is required in order to isolate the
abstract sockets used by other X servers.
$ firejail --net=none --x11=xvfb openbox
*** Attaching to Xvfb display 792 ***
Reading profile /etc/firejail/openbox.profile
Reading profile /etc/firejail/disable-common.inc
Reading profile /etc/firejail/disable-common.local
Parent pid 5400, child pid 5401
On the server we also start a VNC server and attach it to the
display handled by our Xvfb server (792).
$ x11vnc -display :792
On the client machine we start a VNC viewer and use it to con‐
nect to our server:
$ vncviewer
--private-opt=file,directory
Build a new /opt in a temporary filesystem, and copy the files
and directories in the list. If no listed file is found, /opt
directory will be empty. All modifications are discarded when
the sandbox is closed.
Example:
$ firejail --private-opt=firefox /opt/firefox/firefox
--private-srv=file,directory
Build a new /srv in a temporary filesystem, and copy the files
and directories in the list. If no listed file is found, /srv
directory will be empty. All modifications are discarded when
the sandbox is closed.
Example:
# firejail --private-srv=www /etc/init.d/apache2 start
--machine-id
Spoof id number in /etc/machine-id file - a new random id is
generated inside the sandbox.
Example:
$ firejail --machine-id
--allow-private-blacklist
Allow blacklisting files in private home directory. By default
these blacklists are disabled.
Example:
$ firejail --allow-private-blacklist --private=~/priv-dir
--blacklist=~/.mozilla
--hosts-file=file
Use file as /etc/hosts.
Example:
$ firejail --hosts-file=~/myhosts firefox
--writable-var-log
Use the real /var/log directory, not a clone. By default, a
tmpfs is mounted on top of /var/log directory, and a skeleton
filesystem is created based on the original /var/log.
Example:
$ sudo firejail --writable-var-log
--git-install
Download, compile and install mainline git version of Firejail
from the official repository on GitHub. The software is
installed in /usr/local/bin, and takes precedence over the (old)
version installed in /usr/bin. If for any reason the new version
doesn't work, the user can uninstall it using --git-uninstall
command and revert to the old version.
Prerequisites: git and compile support are required for this com‐
mand to work. On Debian/Ubuntu systems this support is installed
using "sudo apt-get install build-essential git".
Example:
$ firejail --git-install
--git-uninstall
Remove the Firejail version previously installed in
/usr/local/bin using --git-install command.
Example:
$ firejail --git-uninstall
--nowhitelist=dirname_or_filename
Disable whitelist for this directory or file.
xiphos, Tor Browser Bundle, display (imagemagik), Wire, mumble, zoom, Guayadeque, qemu, keypass2, amarok, ark, atool, bleachbit, brasero, dolphin, dragon, elinks, enchant, exiftool, file-roller, gedit, gjs, gnome-books, gnome-clocks, gnome-documents, gnome-maps, gnome-music, gnome-photos, gnome-weather, goobox, gpa, gpg, gpg-agent, highlight, img2txt, k3b, kate, lynx, mediainfo, nautilus, odt2txt, pdftotext, simple-scan, skanlite, ssh-agent, tracker, transmission-cli, transmission-show, w3m, xfburn, xpra, wget, xed, pluma, Cryptocat, Bless, Gnome 2048, Gnome Calculator, Gnome Contacts, JD-GUI, Lollypop, MultiMC5, PDFSam, Pithos, Xonotic, wireshark, keepassx2, QupZilla, FossaMail, Uzbl browser, xmms, iridium browser, Kino, Thunar, Geeqie, Engrampa, Scribus, mousepad, gpicview, keepassxc, cvlc, MediathekView, baloo_file, Nylas, dino, BibleTime, viewnior, Kodi, viking, youtube-dl, meld, Arduino, Akregator, KCalc, KTorrent, Orage Globaltime, Orage Clendar, xfce4-notes, xfce4-dict, Ristretto, PCManFM, Dia, FontForge, Geany, Hugin