Anyone know how to contain (sandbox) .appimage files on Linux? I have certain game launcher (I don’t wanna disclose which) that spreads through appimage. And I don’t feel comfortable game having full r/w on my /home dir. Any advices? P.S: what do you think about something like this ?

[image] anonymous580: Any advices? [image] Non-APT Foreign Sources - Install Additional Software Safely Non-APT sources such as Flatpak, Snap, AppImages, standalone binaries, and scripts typically: | Installing additional software on Kicksecure. Security considerations. …

I have all my AppImages sandboxed using bwrap. I’ve found it’s easiest to start by extracting the appimage file using: ./YourAppImage.AppImage --appimage-extract then make a launch file that points to the AppRun file in the extracted AppImage. With that launch file, you can define what the appima…

this sounds like it would be a wonderful community wiki / guide if you ever have the time.

Yeah it’s basically a DIY flatpak :grin: I’d be interested in finding out if there’s a more user-friendly way to do this, since managing bwrap permissions without a GUI is a pain. I’d be happy to hear if anyone has any suggestions here, so we could potentially implement this to the site!

Could something like GitHub - netblue30/firejail: Linux namespaces and seccomp-bpf sandbox · GitHub be used?

Firejail would work here, but I prefer the more minimal approach of bwrap. Here’s a short read that explains the difference more in depth: 1.2 Firejail - Linux | Madaidan's Insecurities Last edited: March 18th, 2022

[image] davidcollini: bwrap Can you explain further? [image] anonymous549: like GitHub - netblue30/firejail: Linux namespaces and seccomp-bpf sandbox · GitHub Firejail runs from root, which opens it to possible privilege escalation vulns and other nasty stuff (see this thread for more…

[image] sha123: which OS? Two: Mint and Fedora (dualboot). But now mostly Mint. [image] sha123: Which Appimage Game launcher. I do not feel comfortable revealing it’s name

[image] anonymous580: Two: Mint and Fedora (dualboot). But now mostly Mint. Do you use X11 on Mint? If you do, you need Xephyr, Xpra or similar to even lay the basis for sandboxing gui applications, otherwise X11 will be a sandbox escape.

Privacy Guides Community

How do you sandbox .appimage files on Linux?

Questions

FranklyFlawless (Frank Lý) March 28, 2026, 1:04am 13

Topic		Replies	Views
Are AppImages a general security risk? Questions please-eli5	24	1613	May 6, 2026
Linux Security Question: Apparmor and Sandboxing Questions software	13	2775	December 30, 2023
What factors do you consider important when downloading a piece of software? Questions	13	505	June 4, 2026
Sandboxing Applications on Desktop Linux Community Wiki linux	0	3221	April 22, 2022
How do I isolate linux apps that don't have flatpak version? Questions	6	863	December 28, 2024

Privacy Guides

Massive organizations are monitoring your online activities. Privacy Guides is your central privacy and security resource to protect yourself online.

Privacy Guides is a non-profit, socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy.

We do not make money from recommending certain products, and we do not use affiliate links.

Knowledge Base

Private Web Browsers

Top VPN Providers

Privacy-Respecting Services

Software Recommendations

More Resources

How do you sandbox .appimage files on Linux?

Related topics