# Why is it ElasticSearch is not allowed to run as root

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-is-it-elasticsearch-is-not-allowed-to-run-as-root/60413>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 13, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-is-it-elasticsearch-is-not-allowed-to-run-as-root/60413 "2016-09-13T17:15:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![jprante](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jprante/32/44941_2.png) [@jprante](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jprante)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-is-it-elasticsearch-is-not-allowed-to-run-as-root/60413/4 "2016-09-13T21:52:46Z")

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> [@lin-zhao](#):
>
> nside of the docker container things are isolated and root processes are considered safe.

This is wrong. Running root processes in Docker are far from safe. If the container is compromised, the root user can do anything, because root in the container is also root on the host. This is the reason why Docker 1.10 introduced user namespaces [https://success.docker.com/Datacenter/Apply/Introduction\_to\_User\_Namespaces\_in\_Docker\_Engine](https://success.docker.com/Datacenter/Apply/Introduction_to_User_Namespaces_in_Docker_Engine)

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