How do I use the terminal SCREEN when chrooted?

Question

How do I allow a user to use SCREEN on a chrooted user?

I have tried everything but I keep on failing.

I need the user to be able to use SCREEN when they are logged in bash as a chrooted user.

Solution 1

SCREEN probably needs devpts, the pseudo-terminal filesystem, to be mounted on /dev/pts inside the chroot.

mount -t devpts none "$rootpath/dev/pts" -o ptmxmode=0666,newinstance

ln -fs "pts/ptmx" "$rootpath/dev/ptmx"

(The newinstance flag is optional; it gives the user a completely separate pty list, preventing them from knowing what other users are logged in.)

Solution 2

In out-of-stock Ubuntu-14.04 this also can be achieved with one "mount" and one "chmod".

Here is /mnt/old is chroot's target directory (new "root"). Also assumed user user belongs to group of /mnt/old/run directory (will be a /run in chroot-ed environment).

sudo mount --bind /dev/pts /mnt/old/dev/pts sudo chmod g+w /mnt/old/run sudo chroot --userspec=user:user /mnt/old screen

Caveats: Not sure if sharing of /dev/pts is really a good idea from security perspective, and I would not recommend this method if security is of concern.

Comments

[xception]

The chrooted user must have enough access to open a new pty, also your question needs more info, do you use any extra security on your system (grsec, selinux, other)?

[Muktadir Miah]

Do I do that on the root user?

[user1686]

@MuktadirMiah: Yes, and you do that for every user's chroot. (You can automate it with pam_exec.)

[Muktadir Miah]

"I ran "mount -t devpts none "/home/jail/dev/pts" -o ptmxmode=0666,newinstance" I get the error "mount: mount point /home/jail/dev/pts does not exist" I used this tutorial to chroot the user: dharmitshah.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/…

[user1686]

If the mountpoint does not exist, create it. With mkdir.

[Muktadir Miah]

I have done it but still I get "-su: screen: command not found" on the chrooted user.

[user1686]

Then copy screen and its files into the chroot... (Tip: Next time, please mention the error message sooner.)

[Muktadir Miah]

I am now getting error "screen: error while loading shared libraries: libtinfo.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

[user1686]

Then copy the libraries into the chroot.

[Muktadir Miah]

How do I do this?

[user1686]

Run ldd /usr/bin/screen, then copy all files listed...