submitted 20 hours ago by ranzispa@mander.xyz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I'm thinking of setting up multi user nix on a compute cluster. The advantage would be to have a shared storage where common packages are reused, this is a great advantage compared to conda where every environment duplicates storage and inodes.

However, the packages are installed as root. As such I'm a bit wary of whether a user installing something could have the system run malware as root by installing a package.

What are the safeguards in place and how do I know I can trust them?

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[-] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 hours ago

However, the packages are installed as root. As such I’m a bit wary of whether a user installing something could have the system run malware as root by installing a package.

I'm pretty sure the packages are built as unprivileged users in a sandbox, and you can also restrict what users can use certain Nix features.

The main security flaw with a multi-user Nix system is that everything you build ends up in a world-readable store.

[-] Remy@lemmy.today 1 points 25 minutes ago

I’m pretty sure the packages are built as unprivileged users in a sandbox, and you can also restrict what users can use certain Nix features.

Are Nix packages sandboxed by default?

[-] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 minute ago

At runtime no, you'd need to use Nixpak or a similar tool

this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2026

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