Linux Container Executor

A setuid binary called container-executor is part of the hadoop-yarn package and is installed in /var/lib/hadoop-yarn/bin/container-executor.

This container-executor program, which is used on YARN only and supported on GNU/Linux only, runs the containers as the user who submitted the application. It requires all user accounts to be created on the cluster hosts where the containers are launched. It uses a setuid executable that is included in the Hadoop distribution. The NodeManager uses this executable to launch and stop containers. The setuid executable switches to the user who has submitted the application and launches or stops the containers. For maximum security, this executor sets up restricted permissions and user/group ownership of local files and directories used by the containers such as the shared objects, jars, intermediate files, and log files. As a result, only the application owner and NodeManager can access any of the local files/directories including those localized as part of the distributed cache.