42 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
# How do I install untrusted packages safely? Is it safe to run Composer as superuser or root?
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## Why am I seeing a "Do not run Composer as root/super user" warning/error?
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It was always discouraged to run Composer as root for the reasons detailed below.
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As of Composer 2.4.2, plugins are disabled automatically when running as root and
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there is no sign that the user is consciously doing this. There are two ways this user consent
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can be given:
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- If you run interactively, Composer will prompt if you are sure that you want to continue
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running as root. If you run non-interactively, plugins will be disabled, unless..
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- If you set the [COMPOSER_ALLOW_SUPERUSER](../03-cli.md#composer-allow-superuser) environment
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variable to `1`, this also indicates that you intended to run Composer as root and are accepting
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the risks of doing so.
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## Is it safe to run Composer as superuser or root?
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Certain Composer commands, including `exec`, `install`, and `update` allow third party code to
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execute on your system. This is from its "plugins" and "scripts" features. Plugins and scripts have
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full access to the user account which runs Composer. For this reason, it is strongly advised to
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**avoid running Composer as super-user/root**. All commands also dispatch events which can be
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caught by plugins so unless explicitly disabled installed plugins will be loaded/executed by **every**
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Composer command.
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You can disable plugins and scripts during package installation or updates with the following
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syntax so only Composer's code, and no third party code, will execute:
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```shell
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php composer.phar install --no-plugins --no-scripts ...
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php composer.phar update --no-plugins --no-scripts ...
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```
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Depending on the operating system we have seen cases where it is possible to trigger execution
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of files in the repository using specially crafted `composer.json`. So in general if you do want
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to install untrusted dependencies you should sandbox them completely in a container or equivalent.
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Also note that the `exec` command will always run third party code as the user which runs `composer`.
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See the [COMPOSER_ALLOW_SUPERUSER](../03-cli.md#composer-allow-superuser) environment variable for
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more info on how to disable the warnings.
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