website/content/en/docs/reference/glossary/userns.md

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---
title: user namespace
id: userns
date: 2021-07-13
full_link: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/user_namespaces.7.html
short_description: >
A Linux kernel feature to emulate superuser privilege for unprivileged users.
aka:
tags:
- security
---
A kernel feature to emulate root. Used for "rootless containers".
<!--more-->
User namespaces are a Linux kernel feature that allows a non-root user to
emulate superuser ("root") privileges,
for example in order to run containers without being a superuser outside the container.
User namespace is effective for mitigating damage of potential container break-out attacks.
In the context of user namespaces, the namespace is a Linux kernel feature, and not a
{{< glossary_tooltip text="namespace" term_id="namespace" >}} in the Kubernetes sense
of the term.
<!-- TODO: https://kinvolk.io/blog/2020/12/improving-kubernetes-and-container-security-with-user-namespaces/ -->