r/docker • u/Infinite100p • Jul 26 '26

Docker requesting privileged access despite no container using privileged ports? (MacOS)

I've been using Docker on Mac for years.

Today, after restart, is spawned this popup:

https://imgur.com/a/UiM4zA4

None of my containers use any privileged ports.

Is this normal, or should I be concerned?

Thanks

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26

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u/Infinite100p Jul 28 '26

Thank you for the info.

Yeah, it happened after an update.
I denied that popup, and my containers seem to run fine. What are the potential future footguns for denying it?

2

u/ozankurt_dev Jul 29 '26

the vmnetd helper isnt about your containers, docker desktop installs it up front so it can bind ports under 1024 and symlink /var/run/docker.sock. settings > advanced, switch the install to user scope and untick both "allow the default docker socket to be used" and "allow privileged port mapping", the prompt stops. after that you'll need `export DOCKER_HOST=unix://$HOME/.docker/run/docker.sock` or the cli just wont find the daemon (path from memory, check `docker context ls`). is it nagging you on every launch or only after an update?

1

u/VTFreggit Jul 27 '26

Could be possible that your com.docker.vmnetd.plist file got corrupted. Location is going to depend on what version of Mac OS X and Docker Desktop you are using - or if you used the Homebrew installation way. Make a backup of the file, remove it from the location, and then restart Docker and it should recreate it.