[GH-ISSUE #1344] Firefox and thunderbird are starting as root #922

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-05-05 07:09:23 -06:00 by gitea-mirror · 1 comment

gitea-mirror commented

2026-05-05 07:09:23 -06:00

Owner

Originally created by @Lemnis-kate on GitHub (Jun 22, 2017).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netblue30/firejail/issues/1344

Dear people.

With Ubuntu Mate 16.04 the command "firejail firefox &" starts firefox als root.
This could not be right. With thunderbird I have the same problem.
So it can't be the profile.
With Ubuntu 16.04. that problem doesn't exists.

Thanks for help.

Originally created by @Lemnis-kate on GitHub (Jun 22, 2017). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netblue30/firejail/issues/1344 Dear people. With Ubuntu Mate 16.04 the command "firejail firefox &" starts firefox als root. This could not be right. With thunderbird I have the same problem. So it can't be the profile. With Ubuntu 16.04. that problem doesn't exists. Thanks for help.

gitea-mirror

2026-05-05 07:09:23 -06:00

closed this issue
added the
information_old
label

gitea-mirror commented

2026-05-05 07:09:37 -06:00

Author

Owner

@Fred-Barclay commented on GitHub (Jun 22, 2017):

Hi @Lemnis-kate,
Firejail does start itself as root, but it drops these privileges when running Firefox or other applications. You can check this for yourself by running ps -aux | grep firefox inside your terminal.

A more detailed explanation is at https://firejail.wordpress.com/support/frequently-asked-questions/#as-superuser. We also have a discussion about it at #258.

EDIT: as you noticed, the notice that programs are running as root usually only occurs in MATE, as far as I'm aware. That's why you see it in Ubuntu MATE 16.04 but not in regular Ubuntu.

@Fred-Barclay commented on GitHub (Jun 22, 2017): Hi @Lemnis-kate, Firejail does start itself as root, but it drops these privileges when running Firefox or other applications. You can check this for yourself by running `ps -aux | grep firefox` inside your terminal. A more detailed explanation is at https://firejail.wordpress.com/support/frequently-asked-questions/#as-superuser. We also have a discussion about it at #258. EDIT: as you noticed, the notice that programs are running as root usually only occurs in MATE, as far as I'm aware. That's why you see it in Ubuntu MATE 16.04 but not in regular Ubuntu.

No milestone

No project

No assignees

1 participant

Notifications

Due date

The due date is invalid or out of range. Please use the format "yyyy-mm-dd".

No due date set.

Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: github-starred/firejail#922

No description provided.

Rows
Columns