# How do I install untrusted packages safely? Is it safe to run Composer as superuser or root?

## Why am I seeing a "Do not run Composer as root/super user" warning/error?

It was always discouraged to run Composer as root for the reasons detailed below.

As of Composer 2.4.2, plugins are disabled automatically when running as root and
there is no sign that the user is consciously doing this. There are two ways this user consent
can be given:

- If you run interactively, Composer will prompt if you are sure that you want to continue
  running as root. If you run non-interactively, plugins will be disabled, unless..
- If you set the [COMPOSER_ALLOW_SUPERUSER](../03-cli.md#composer-allow-superuser) environment
  variable to `1`, this also indicates that you intended to run Composer as root and are accepting
  the risks of doing so.

## Is it safe to run Composer as superuser or root?

Certain Composer commands, including `exec`, `install`, and `update` allow third party code to
execute on your system. This is from its "plugins" and "scripts" features. Plugins and scripts have
full access to the user account which runs Composer. For this reason, it is strongly advised to
**avoid running Composer as super-user/root**. All commands also dispatch events which can be
caught by plugins so unless explicitly disabled installed plugins will be loaded/executed by **every**
Composer command.

You can disable plugins and scripts during package installation or updates with the following
syntax so only Composer's code, and no third party code, will execute:

```shell
php composer.phar install --no-plugins --no-scripts ...
php composer.phar update --no-plugins --no-scripts ...
```

Depending on the operating system we have seen cases where it is possible to trigger execution
of files in the repository using specially crafted `composer.json`. So in general if you do want
to install untrusted dependencies you should sandbox them completely in a container or equivalent.

Also note that the `exec` command will always run third party code as the user which runs `composer`.

See the [COMPOSER_ALLOW_SUPERUSER](../03-cli.md#composer-allow-superuser) environment variable for
more info on how to disable the warnings.

## Running Composer inside Docker/Podman containers

Composer makes a best effort attempt to detect that it runs inside a container and if so it will
allow running as root without any further issues. If that detection fails however you will
see warnings and plugins will be disabled unless you set the [COMPOSER_ALLOW_SUPERUSER](../03-cli.md#composer-allow-superuser)
environment variable.