[GH-ISSUE #363] Document how to harden security #121

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opened 2026-10-18 21:06:20 +00:00 by bsakaguchi · 0 comments

bsakaguchi commented

2026-10-18 21:06:20 +00:00

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Originally created by @qdii on GitHub (Mar 7, 2026).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/open-webui/helm-charts/issues/363

Here are some instructions to improve the security posture of the chart. Namely, they:

Turn the filesystem read-only
Drop privileges
Run the app with UID 1001 and GID 1001.

This is not trivial to do because the container image is built as root, so simply changing the running user to 1001 runs into issues when trying to read files shipped as part of the container image.

Ideally this should be part of a wiki, or included in the README. I'm not sure where to add them, hence opening it as issue to let the maintainers decide.

First, we need to add two volumes. The base will contain all the files present in the container image, but changed to belong to user/group 1001/1001. The tmp allows the app to write to /tmp.

volumes:
  - name: "tmp"
    emptyDir: {}
  - name: "base"
    emptyDir: {}

Then we need two initContainers:

cp-image will simply copy all files from the Docker image into base
fix-permissions will change UID/GID to all files in base and all files in the persistent volume data.

extraInitContainers:
  # The app relies on finding files that are present on the image
  # however, those are written as root (https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/Dockerfile#L22)
  # So we copy all files to an emptyDir, then chown them to 1001, then mount that as the base
  - name: cp-image
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
    command: ["sh", "-c", "ls -la /app; cp -Rv /app/* /base"]
    volumeMounts:
      - name: base
        mountPath: /base
  - name: fix-permissions
    image: busybox:latest
    command: ["sh", "-c", "chown -R 1001:1001 /data /base"]
    volumeMounts:
      - name: data
        mountPath: /data
      - name: base
        mountPath: /base

We then tell the app to mount base and tmp where the app expects them:

volumeMounts:
  container:
    - name: "base"
      mountPath: "/app"
      readOnly: false
    - name: "tmp"
      mountPath: "/tmp"

And with that we can apply propery security policies:

podSecurityContext:
  fsGroupChangePolicy: Always
  fsGroup: 1001

containerSecurityContext:
  runAsUser: 1001
  runAsGroup: 1001
  runAsNonRoot: true
  privileged: false
  allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
  readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
  capabilities:
    drop:
      - ALL
  seccompProfile:
    type: "RuntimeDefault"

Originally created by @qdii on GitHub (Mar 7, 2026). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/open-webui/helm-charts/issues/363 Here are some instructions to improve the security posture of the chart. Namely, they: * Turn the filesystem read-only * Drop privileges * Run the app with UID 1001 and GID 1001. This is not trivial to do because the [container image is built as root](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/Dockerfile#L22), so simply changing the running user to 1001 runs into issues when trying to read files shipped as part of the container image. Ideally this should be part of a wiki, or included in the README. I'm not sure where to add them, hence opening it as issue to let the maintainers decide. First, we need to add two volumes. The `base` will contain all the files present in the container image, but changed to belong to user/group 1001/1001. The `tmp` allows the app to write to `/tmp`. ``` volumes: - name: "tmp" emptyDir: {} - name: "base" emptyDir: {} ``` Then we need two `initContainers`: * `cp-image` will simply copy all files from the Docker image into `base` * `fix-permissions` will change UID/GID to all files in `base` and all files in the persistent volume `data`. ``` extraInitContainers: # The app relies on finding files that are present on the image # however, those are written as root (https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/Dockerfile#L22) # So we copy all files to an emptyDir, then chown them to 1001, then mount that as the base - name: cp-image image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main command: ["sh", "-c", "ls -la /app; cp -Rv /app/* /base"] volumeMounts: - name: base mountPath: /base - name: fix-permissions image: busybox:latest command: ["sh", "-c", "chown -R 1001:1001 /data /base"] volumeMounts: - name: data mountPath: /data - name: base mountPath: /base ``` We then tell the app to mount `base` and `tmp` where the app expects them: ``` volumeMounts: container: - name: "base" mountPath: "/app" readOnly: false - name: "tmp" mountPath: "/tmp" ``` And with that we can apply propery security policies: ``` podSecurityContext: fsGroupChangePolicy: Always fsGroup: 1001 containerSecurityContext: runAsUser: 1001 runAsGroup: 1001 runAsNonRoot: true privileged: false allowPrivilegeEscalation: false readOnlyRootFilesystem: true capabilities: drop: - ALL seccompProfile: type: "RuntimeDefault" ```

bsakaguchi referenced this issue

2026-10-18 21:07:15 +00:00

[PR #121] [MERGED] Add namespace explicitly to pipelines #215

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