linux capabilities

created: 20240113 updated: 20240113 authors: alick97

setcap to program for running program without root

example running nethogs without root

• not setting cap

  alick@alick-pc:/tmp$ nethogs 
  To run nethogs without being root you need to enable capabilities on the program (cap_net_admin, cap_net_raw), see the documentation for details.
  

• set cap to execute file. now run program without root

  alick@alick-pc:/tmp$ sudo setcap   'cap_net_admin+eip cap_net_raw+eip' /usr/sbin/nethogs
  

• example for delete cap

  alick@alick-pc:/tmp$ sudo setcap   'cap_net_admin-eip cap_net_raw-eip' /usr/sbin/nethogs
  

reference:

• man 8 capabilities
• man 8 setcap
• man 3 cap_from_text