Ship iptables, not nftables — nftables forfeits macOS
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Re-review overturned the previous commit's package choice, and verifying it
proved the reviewer right.

`wg-quick` picks nft *unconditionally* when it is present (`type -p nft`, line
241), so installing nftables makes the iptables path unreachable. Its nft
ruleset then needs a third expression family the iptables path does not.
Isolating the rules on this host, the two connmark rules install fine and this
is what fails:

    nft add rule ... fib saddr type != local drop
    Error: Could not process rule: No such file or directory

That decides it, because of how the hosts differ. LinuxKit's kernel config —
Docker Desktop for Mac, identical on x86_64 and aarch64:

    CONFIG_NETFILTER_XT_CONNMARK=y      <- the iptables path works
    # CONFIG_NFT_FIB_IPV4 is not set    <- the nft path does not

So nftables would have broken the platform it was added to fix. With iptables,
full tunnels work on native Linux, Docker Desktop for Mac, and WSL2 from 6.6.
Costs 7,203 kB rather than 5,614 kB on amd64.

That also means the mechanism the previous commit documented was wrong: with
nftables installed `xt_CONNMARK` is never consulted, and the real blocker on
that path is `nft_fib_ipv4`. Rewritten around what actually fails.

A second failure neither round had found: `wireguard-tools` only *Suggests*
`openresolv | resolvconf`, so neither is installed, and every provider's stock
config has a `DNS =` line. That fails in `set_dns()` — before any routing — so
it takes split tunnels down too, contradicting what this PR previously claimed:

    [#] resolvconf -a sp -m 0 -x
    /usr/bin/wg-quick: line 32: resolvconf: command not found   EXIT=127

Not fixed, deliberately: `openresolv` has no installation candidate on noble,
and `resolvconf` resolves only by pulling in systemd-resolved — a resolver
daemon and systemd units, into a container with no systemd. Documented instead.

Smaller corrections from the same review:

- the size caveat blamed ~209 kB of libelf1t64; for this package set the real
  over-count is libelf1t64 + netbase. Restated, and arm64 now given against the
  real base rather than left as a bare-ubuntu figure.
- the manual-install fallback omitted `iproute2`, so it left the user without
  `ip` — the command the tunnel needs most.
- "Without it" had been orphaned from its antecedent by inserted paragraphs and
  read as referring to configuring a tunnel.
- the migration probe said "VPN support", presenting VPN as a feature gained to
  users who never enabled it. Now names the tools and the toggle.
- "What's Inside the Container" gains a row; the key-material-in-snapshot
  hazard was in CLAUDE.md only, and is the one genuinely user-facing warning
  here.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-17 16:24:07 -07:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent ab2c75d0b2
commit 92d64cf252
4 changed files with 78 additions and 41 deletions
+19 -9
View File
@@ -477,19 +477,19 @@ When enabled, the container is given the three things a VPN client needs to buil
the `NET_ADMIN` capability, the `/dev/net/tun` device, and the `net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark`
sysctl that WireGuard requires. This is **off by default**.
The `ip`, `wg` and `nft` commands ship in the container image so there is something able to use
The `ip`, `wg` and `iptables` commands ship in the container image so there is something able to use
them. If your project's container was created from an older base image it will not have them, and
`wg` will simply not be found — **migrating the project onto the current base image** is what picks
them up. Installing them by hand with `sudo apt install wireguard-tools` works in the meantime, but
lives in the writable layer, so it is undone by a **Reset** and by a migration.
them up. `sudo apt install iproute2 wireguard-tools iptables` works in the meantime, but lives in
the writable layer, so it is undone by a **Reset** and by a migration.
**This setting makes a tunnel possible; it does not make one.** Nothing is connected, no traffic is
redirected, and no tunnel is configured or started on your behalf. Enabling it and expecting the
container's traffic to start leaving through a VPN is the most common misreading of what it does —
configuring a tunnel and routing traffic into it remains yours to do.
Without it, a client such as PIA, WireGuard or OpenVPN installs and its daemon starts normally, but
the connection attempt **hangs until it times out** — a default container has no tun device to open
With the setting **off**, a client such as PIA or OpenVPN installs and its daemon starts normally,
but the connection attempt **hangs until it times out** — a default container has no tun device to open
and no permission to add an interface or a route, and most clients report that as a generic timeout
rather than a permissions error.
@@ -528,10 +528,19 @@ Things worth knowing:
address via the original gateway, or the tunnel's encrypted packets try to route through the
tunnel. Note that a health check which fetches an IP literal such as `1.1.1.1` passes cleanly
while DNS is broken — resolve a name instead.
- **`wg-quick` cannot bring up a full tunnel on Docker Desktop for Windows.** Its `Table=auto` mode
routes by firewall mark and needs `xt_CONNMARK` from the host kernel, which WSL2's does not have
and a container cannot load. Split tunnels (a specific `AllowedIPs`) work fine, as does adding
the routes yourself with `ip route`. Native Linux and Docker Desktop for Mac are unaffected.
- **Delete a client's key material when you tear a tunnel down.** Anything written under `/run` is
in the container's writable layer, and recreating or migrating the project runs `docker commit`
over it — so a WireGuard private key left there gets baked into the project's snapshot image and
copied forward from then on. This is not hypothetical; it has already happened here.
- **Strip the `DNS =` line from a provider's `.conf` before `wg-quick up`.** Every commercial
provider ships one, and `wg-quick` hands it to `resolvconf`, which is not installed — so it fails
at `resolvconf: command not found` and deletes the interface again. This happens before any
routing, so it takes **split tunnels down too**. Set the resolver another way instead, or drive
`wg` and `ip route` directly rather than going through `wg-quick`.
- **`wg-quick` full tunnels also need `xt_CONNMARK` from the host kernel.** Native Linux, Docker
Desktop for Mac and WSL2 kernels from 6.6 have it; older WSL2 kernels do not, and a container
cannot load one. There the answer is again to add the routes yourself with `ip route`, which
needs no firewall backend on any platform.
> This setting can only be changed when the container is stopped. Capabilities and devices are
> fixed when a container is created, so toggling it recreates the container on the next start.
@@ -1291,6 +1300,7 @@ The sandbox container (Ubuntu 24.04) comes pre-installed with:
| ruff | Latest | Python linter/formatter |
| Rust | Stable | Rust development (via rustup) |
| Docker CLI | Latest | Container management (when spawning is enabled) |
| iproute2, WireGuard tools, iptables | Latest | Building a tunnel (when VPN Support is enabled) |
| git | Latest | Version control |
| GitHub CLI (gh) | Latest | GitHub integration |
| AWS CLI | v2 | AWS services and Bedrock |