Chromium Sandbox

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When X-Pack reporting uses the Chromium browser for generating PDF reports, it’s recommended to use the sandbox for an additional layer of security. The Chromium sandbox uses operating system provided mechanisms to ensure that code execution cannot make persistent changes to the computer or access confidential information. The specific sandboxing techniques differ for each operating system.

Linux Sandbox

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The Linux sandbox depends on user namespaces, which were introduced with the 3.8 Linux kernel. However, many distributions don’t have user namespaces enabled by default, or they require the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability. X-Pack reporting will automatically disable the sandbox when it is running on Debian and CentOS as additional steps are required to enable unprivileged usernamespaces. In these situations, you’ll see the following message in your Kibana logs: Enabling the Chromium sandbox provides an additional layer of protection.

If your kernel is 3.8 or newer, it’s recommended to enable usernamespaces and set xpack.reporting.capture.browser.chromium.disableSandbox: false in your kibana.yml to enable the sandbox.

Docker

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When running Kibana in a Docker container, all container processes are run within a usernamespace with seccomp-bpf and AppArmor profiles that prevent the Chromium sandbox from being used. In these situations, disabling the sandbox is recommended, as the container implements similar security mechanisms.