Dear Maintainer,
On an unmodified Debian 13.6 installation, activating a NetworkManager
connection with 802-11-wireless.mode=ap and ipv4.method=shared causes
NetworkManager's private dnsmasq process to log:
dnsmasq: chown of PID file /run/nm-dnsmasq-wlp3s0.pid failed:
please add capability CAP_CHOWN
The hotspot otherwise works: dnsmasq listens for DNS and DHCP and
successfully issues leases.
The stock NetworkManager systemd unit contains:
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_ADMIN CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE CAP_NET_RAW
CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE CAP_SETGID CAP_SETUID CAP_SYS_MODULE
CAP_AUDIT_WRITE CAP_KILL CAP_SYS_CHROOT
CAP_CHOWN is not included. There are no local NetworkManager systemd
drop-ins, no custom files in /etc/NetworkManager/dnsmasq-shared.d, and
no relevant AppArmor denial.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Configure a Wi-Fi connection in AP mode with ipv4.method=shared.
2. Activate it or reboot with connection.autoconnect enabled.
3. Inspect the NetworkManager journal.
Expected result:
NetworkManager's supported shared-connection configuration starts
dnsmasq without a missing-capability warning, either by handling the
PID-file ownership consistently with the service capability set or by
otherwise avoiding the unsupported ownership operation.
Actual result:
dnsmasq emits the CAP_CHOWN warning once during startup.
Impact:
No functional DHCP or DNS failure has been observed, so this report is
filed with minor severity. The warning is nevertheless produced by the
stock package configuration and looks actionable to users.
Package versions:
network-manager 1.52.1-1
dnsmasq-base 2.91-1+deb13u1
systemd 257.13-1~deb13u1
Debian 13.6
Linux 6.12.101+deb13-amd64
Please reassign this report to dnsmasq if that is the more appropriate
package.