[libvirt-users] How to run libvirtd as non root user

[Spencer Baugh]

Eric Blake <eblake at redhat.com> writes:

> On 07/30/2015 11:10 AM, Anshul Arora (akarora) wrote:
>> Team,
>> 
>> I note that libvertd runs as root user that is against the least privilege security model.
>> 
>> root     307278      1  0 Jun20 ?        04:16:46 /usr/sbin/libvirtd -listen
>
> Sadly, that IS the least privilege required for successfully running
> qemu:///system or lxc:/// guests.
>
>> 
>> 
>> Appreciate pointers to alternate options that user could configure as a potential mitigation plan?
>
> Use qemu:///session connections - that runs a separate libvirtd process
> as the current user, just fine.  Without privileges, your guests will
> have a harder time using networking, but that's what you'd expect.

To enhance this experience, make sure that /dev/kvm is writable by the
current user, and configure qemu-bridge-helper (and make sure
it's setuid).