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Diffstat (limited to 'src/nm-helpers/README.md')
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diff --git a/src/nm-helpers/README.md b/src/nm-helpers/README.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..66a94292 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/nm-helpers/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +nm-helpers +========== + +This directory contains stand-alone helper programs used by various +components. + +nm-daemon-helper +---------------- + +A internal helper application that is spawned by NetworkManager to +perform certain actions which can't be done in the daemon. + +Currently it's used to do a reverse DNS lookup after reconfiguring the +libc resolver (which is a process-wide operation), and to read files +on behalf of unprivileged users (which requires a seteuid that affects +all the threads of the process). + +This is not directly useful to the user. + +nm-libnm-helper +--------------- + +A internal helper application that is spawned by libnm to perform +certain actions without impacting the calling process. + +This is not directly useful to the user. + +nm-priv-helper +-------------- + +This is a D-Bus activatable, exit-on-idle service, which +provides an internal API to NetworkManager daemon. + +This has no purpose for the user, it is an implementation detail +of the daemon. + +The purpose is that `nm-priv-helper` can execute certain +privileged operations which NetworkManager process is not +allowed to. We want to sandbox NetworkManager as much as +possible, and nm-priv-helper provides a controlled way to +perform some very specific operations. + +As such, nm-priv-helper should still be sandboxed too to only +being able to execute the operations that are necessary for +NetworkManager. + +nm-priv-helper will reject all D-Bus requests that are not +originating from the current name owner of +"org.freedesktop.NetworkManager". That is, it is supposed to +only reply to NetworkManager daemon and as such is not useful to +the user directly. |