Summary

Sub-menu:/container
Packages required:container


A container is MikroTik's implementation of Linux containers, allowing users to run containerized environments within RouterOS. The container feature was added in RouterOS v7.4beta4.

Disclaimer

  • you need physical access to the router to enable support for the container feature, it is disabled by default;
  • once the container feature is enabled, containers can be added/configured/started/stopped/removed remotely!
  • 如果罗uter is compromised, containers can be used to easily install malicious software in your router and over network;
  • your router is as secure as anything you run in container;
  • if you run container, there is no security guarantee of any kind;
  • running a 3rd party container image on your router could open a security hole/attack vector/attack surface;
  • an expert with knowledge how to build exploits will be able to jailbreak/elevate to root;

Security risks:

when a security expert publishes his exploit research - anyone can apply such an exploit;
someone will build a container image that will do the exploit AND provide a Linux root shell;
by using a root shell someone may leave a permanent backdoor/vulnerability in your RouterOS system even after the docker image is removed and the container feature disabled;
if a vulnerability is injected into the primary or secondary routerboot (or vendor pre-loader), then even netinstall may not be able to fix it;

Requirements

Container package is compatible witharm arm64andx86architectures. Using of remote-image (similar to docker pull) functionality requires a lot of free space in main memory, 16MB SPI flash boards may use pre-build images on USB or other disk media.


External disk is highly recommended


Container package needs to be installed
/container

Properties

Property Description

cmd(string; Default: )

 command to execute inside a container (will overwrite CMD parameter)

comment(string; Default: )

 Short description

dns(string; Default: )

domain-name(string; Default: )

entrypoint (string; Default:)

 path to the binary
envlist(string; Default: ) list of environmental variables (configured under/container envs) to be used with container
file(string; Default:) container *tar.gz tarball if the container is imported from a file
hostname(string; Default:)
interface(string; Default:) veth interface to be used with the container
logging(string; Default:) if set to yes, all container-generated output will be shown in the RouterOS log
mounts(string; Default:) mounts from /container/mounts/ sub-menu to be used with this container
remote-image(string; Default:) the container image name to be installed if an external registry is used (configured under /container/config set registry-url=...)
root-dir(string; Default:) used to save container store outside main memory
stop-signal(string; Default:)
workdir(string; Default: ) cmd入口点的工作目录

Container configuration

/container/config/


Property Description
registry-url external registry url from where the container will be downloaded
tmpdir container extraction directory
ram-high RAM usage limit. (0 for unlimited)
username Specifies the username for authentication ( starting from ROS 7.8)
password Specifies the password for authentication ( starting from ROS 7.8)

Container use example

Prerequisites:

    1. RouterOS device with RouterOS v7.4beta or later andinstalled Container package
    2. Physical access to a device to enable container mode
    3. Attached hard drive or USB drive for storage - formatted as ext3/ext4

Enable Container mode

Device-modelimits container use by default, before granting container mode access - make sure your device is fully secured.

enable container mode

/system/device-mode/update container=yes

你需要确认device-mode公关ess of the reset button, or a cold reboot, if using container on X86.

Create network

Add veth interface for the container:

/interface/veth/add name=veth1 address=172.17.0.2/24 gateway=172.17.0.1

Create a bridge for containers and add veth to it:

/interface/bridge/add name=containers /ip/address/add address=172.17.0.1/24 interface=containers /interface/bridge/port add bridge=containers interface=veth1

Setup NAT for outgoing traffic:

/ip/firewall/nat/add chain=srcnat action=masquerade src-address=172.17.0.0/24

Add environment variables and mounts (optional)

Create environment variables for container(optional):

/container/envs/add name=pihole_envs key=TZ value="Europe/Riga" /container/envs/add name=pihole_envs key=WEBPASSWORD value="mysecurepassword" /container/envs/add name=pihole_envs key=DNSMASQ_USER value="root"

Define mounts (optional):

/container/mounts/add name=etc_pihole src=disk1/etc dst=/etc/pihole /container/mounts/add name=dnsmasq_pihole src=disk1/etc-dnsmasq.d dst=/etc/dnsmasq.d


src=points to RouterOS location (could also besrc=disk1/etc_piholeif, for example, You decide to put configuration files on external USB media),dst=points to defined location (consult containers manual/wiki/github for information on where to point). Ifsrcdirectory does not exist on first time use then it will be populated with whatever container have indstlocation.

Add container image

If You wish to see container output in log - addlogging=yeswhen creating a container, root-dir should point to an external drive formatted in ext3 or ext4. It's not recommended to use internal storage for containers.
There are multiple ways to add containers:

a) get an image from an external library

Set registry-url (for downloading containers from Docker registry) and set extract directory (tmpdir) to attached USB media:

/container/config/set registry-url=https://registry-1.docker.io tmpdir=disk1/pull

pull image:

/集装箱/添加远程图像= pihole / pihole:最新的我nterface=veth1 root-dir=disk1/pihole mounts=dnsmasq_pihole,etc_pihole envlist=pihole_envs

The image will be automatically pulled and extracted to root-dir, status can be checked by using

/container/print

b) import image from PC

These links arelatestas of16th of June, 2022. Please make sure to download the right version that matches Your RouterOS device's architecture.
Update sha256 sum from docker hub to get the latest image files

arm64: docker pull pihole/pihole:latest@sha256:4cef8a7b32d318ba218c080a3673b56f396d2e2c74d375bef537ff5e41fc4638 docker save pihole/pihole > pihole.tar arm docker pull pihole/pihole:latest@sha256:684c59c7c057b2829d19d08179265c79a9ddabf03145c1e2fad2fae3d9c36a94 docker save pihole/pihole > pihole.tar amd64 docker pull pihole/pihole:latest@sha256:f56885979dcffeb902d2ca51828c92118199222ffb8f6644505e7881e11eeb85 docker save pihole/pihole > pihole.tar

After the file has been downloaded and extracted - upload it to Your RouterOS device. Create a container from tar image

/container/add file=pihole.tar interface=veth1 envlist=pihole_envs root-dir=disk1/pihole mounts=dnsmasq_pihole,etc_pihole hostname=PiHole

c) build an image on PC

Steps for Linux systems

To use Dockerfile and make your own docker package - docker needs to be installed as well as buildx or other builder toolkit.

Easiest way is to download and install Docker Engine:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

After install check if extra architectures are available:

docker buildx ls

should return:

NAME/NODE DRIVER/ENDPOINT STATUS PLATFORMS default * docker default default running linux/amd64, linux/arm64, linux/riscv64, linux/ppc64le, linux/s390x, linux/386, linux/arm/v7, linux/arm/v6

If not - install extra architectures:

docker run --privileged --rm tonistiigi/binfmt --install all

pull or create your project with Dockerfile included and build, extract image (adjust --platform if needed):

git clone https://github.com/pi-hole/docker-pi-hole.git cd docker-pi-hole docker buildx build --no-cache --platform arm64 --output=type=docker -t pihole . docker save pihole > pihole.tar

Uploadpihole.tarto Your RouterOS device.

Images and objects on the Linux system can bepruned

Create a container from the tar image

/container/add file=pihole.tar interface=veth1 envlist=pihole_envs mounts=dnsmasq_pihole,etc_pihole hostname=PiHole

Start container

Make sure container has been added andstatus=stoppedby using/container/print

/container/start 0

You should be able to access the PiHole web panel by navigating tohttp://172.17.0.2in your web browser.

Forward ports to internal container

Ports can be forwarded using dst-nat (where 192.168.88.1 routers IP address):

/ip firewall nat add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat dst-address=192.168.88.1 dst-port=80 protocol=tcp to-addresses=172.17.0.2 to-ports=80

For Pihole container - set DNS server to containers veth interface IP address -

/ip dns set servers=172.17.0.2

or change DHCP servers settings to serve Pihole DNS


Tips and tricks

  • Containers use up a lot of disk space, USB/SATA,NVMe attached media is highly recommended. For devices with USB ports - USB to SATA adapters can be used with 2.5" drives - for extra storage and faster file operations.
  • RAM usage can be limited by using:
/container/config/set ram-high=200M

this will soft limit RAM usage - if a RAM usage goes over the high boundary, the processes of the cgroup are throttled and put under heavy reclaim pressure.

  • For starting containers after router reboot use start-on-boot option (starting from 7.6beta6)

    /container/print 0 name="2e679415-2edd-4300-8fab-a779ec267058" tag="test_arm64:latest" os="linux" arch="arm" interface=veth2 root-dir=disk1/alpine mounts="" dns="" logging=yes start-on-boot=yes status=running /container/set 0 start-on-boot=yes

  • It is possible to get torunningcontainer shell:

    /container/shell 0

  • Enable logging to get output from container:

    /container/set 0 logging=yes
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