SLIRP4NETNS(1)

NAME

slirp4netns - User-mode networking for unprivileged network namespaces

SYNOPSIS

slirp4netns [OPTION]... PID TAPNAME

DESCRIPTION

slirp4netns provides user-mode networking ("slirp") for network namespaces.

Unlike veth(4), slirp4netns does not require the root privileges on the host.

Default configuration:

    •   MTU: 1500

    •   CIDR: 10.0.2.0/24

    •   Gateway/Host: 10.0.2.2 (network address + 2)

    •   DNS: 10.0.2.3 (network address + 3)

    •   IPv6 CIDR: fd00::/64

    •   IPv6 Gateway/Host: fd00::2

    •   IPv6 DNS: fd00::3

OPTIONS

-c, --configure bring up the interface. IP will be set to 10.0.2.100 (network address + 100) by default. IPv6 will be set to a random address.

-e, --exit-fd=FD specify the FD for terminating slirp4netns.

-r, --ready-fd=FD specify the FD to write to when the network is configured.

-m, --mtu=MTU specify MTU (max=65521).

--cidr (since v0.3.0) specify CIDR, e.g. 10.0.2.0/24

--disable-host-loopback (since v0.3.0) prohibit connecting to 127.0.0.1:* on the host namespace

-a, --api-socket (since v0.3.0) API socket path

-6, --enable-ipv6 enable IPv6 (experimental).

-h, --help show help and exit

-v, --version show version and exit

EXAMPLE

Terminal 1: Create user/network/mount namespaces

    $ unshare --user --map-root-user --net --mount
    unshared$ echo $$ > /tmp/pid

Terminal 2: Start slirp4netns

    $ slirp4netns --configure --mtu=65520 $(cat /tmp/pid) tap0
    starting slirp, MTU=65520

Terminal 1: Make sure tap0 is configured and connected to the Internet

    unshared$ ip a
    1: lo: <LOOPBACK> mtu 65536 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
        link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    3: tap0: <BROADCAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65520 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
        link/ether c2:28:0c:0e:29:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
        inet 10.0.2.100/24 brd 10.0.2.255 scope global tap0
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
        inet6 fe80::c028:cff:fe0e:2906/64 scope link
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    unshared$ echo "nameserver 10.0.2.3" > /tmp/resolv.conf
    unshared$ mount --bind /tmp/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
    unshared$ curl https://example.com

Bind-mounting /etc/resolv.conf is only needed when /etc/resolv.conf on the host refers to loopback addresses (127.0.0.X, typically because of dnsmasq(8) or systemd-resolved.service(8)) that cannot be accessed from the namespace.

If your /etc/resolv.conf on the host is managed by networkmanager(8) or systemd-resolved.service(8), you might need to mount a new filesystem on /etc instead, so as to prevent the new /etc/resolv.conf from being unmounted unexpectedly when /etc/resolv.conf on the host is regenerated.

    unshared$ mkdir /tmp/a /tmp/b
    unshared$ mount --rbind /etc /tmp/a
    unshared$ mount --rbind /tmp/b /etc
    unshared$ mkdir /etc/.ro
    unshared$ mount --move /tmp/a /etc/.ro
    unshared$ cd /etc
    unshared$ for f in .ro/*; do ln -s $f $(basename $f); done
    unshared$ rm resolv.conf
    unshared$ echo "nameserver 10.0.2.3" > /tmp/resolv.conf
    unshared$ curl https://example.com

ROUTING PING PACKETS

To route ping packets, you need to set up net.ipv4.ping_group_range properly as the root.

e.g.

    $ sudo sh -c "echo 0   2147483647  > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ping_group_range"

FILTERING CONNECTIONS

By default, ports listening on INADDR_LOOPBACK (127.0.0.1) on the host are accessible from the child namespace via the gateway (default: 10.0.2.2). --disable-host-loopback can be used to prohibit connecting to INADDR_LOOPBACK on the host.

However, a host loopback address might be still accessible via the built-in DNS (default: 10.0.2.3) if /etc/resolv.conf on the host refers to a loopback address. You may want to set up iptables for limiting access to the built-in DNS in such a case.

    unshared$ iptables -A OUTPUT -d 10.0.2.3 -p udp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT
    unshared$ iptables -A OUTPUT -d 10.0.2.3 -j DROP

API SOCKET

slirp4netns can provide QMP-like API server over an UNIX socket file:

    $ slirp4netns --api-socket /tmp/slirp4netns.sock ...

add_hostfwd: Expose a port (IPv4 only)

    $ json='{"execute": "add_hostfwd", "arguments": {"proto": "tcp", "host_addr": "0.0.0.0", "host_port": 8080, "guest_addr": "10.0.2.100", "guest_port": 80}}'
    $ echo -n $json | nc -U /tmp/slirp4netns.sock
    { "return": {"id": 42}}

If host_addr is not specified, then it defaults to "0.0.0.0".

If guest_addr is not specified, then it will be set to the default address that corresponds to --configure.

list_hostfwd: List exposed ports

    $ json='{"execute": "list_hostfwd"}'
    $ echo -n $json | nc -U /tmp/slirp4netns.sock
    { "return": {"entries": [{"id": 42, "proto": "tcp", "host_addr": "0.0.0.0", "host_port": 8080, "guest_addr": "10.0.2.100", "guest_port": 80}]}}

remove_hostfwd: Remove an exposed port

    $ json='{"execute": "remove_hostfwd", "arguments": {"id": 42}}'
    $ echo -n $json | nc -U /tmp/slirp4netns.sock
    { "return": {}}

Remarks:

    •   Client needs to shutdown the socket with SHUT_WR after sending every request. i.e. No support for keep-alive and timeout.

    •   slirp4netns "stops the world" during processing API requests.

    •   A request must be less than 4095 bytes.

    •   JSON responses may contain error instead of return.

SEE ALSO

network_namespaces(7), user_namespaces(7), veth(4)

AVAILABILITY

The slirp4netns command is available from https://github.com/rootless-containers/slirp4netns under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2.