--- title: GTK+ Hackfest 2017: D-Bus communication with containers description: At the GTK+ Hackfest in London, Simon McVittie explored how to improve D-Bus communication for app container technologies like Flatpak and Snap. Two key use... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/gtk-hackfest-2017-d-bus-communication-with-containers-vvnuicvxt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: GTK+ Hackfest 2017: D-Bus communication with containers | daily.dev og:description: At the GTK+ Hackfest in London, Simon McVittie explored how to improve D-Bus communication for app container technologies like Flatpak and Snap. Two key use... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/gtk-hackfest-2017-d-bus-communication-with-containers-vvnuicvxt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/VVnUIcVXT.png og:image:alt: GTK+ Hackfest 2017: D-Bus communication with containers og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # GTK+ Hackfest 2017: D-Bus communication with containers **[Collabora Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/collabora)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary At the GTK+ Hackfest in London, Simon McVittie explored how to improve D-Bus communication for app container technologies like Flatpak and Snap. Two key use cases were identified: Portals needing to distinguish between contained and uncontained processes, and dconf needing scoped read/write access for contained apps rather than all-or-nothing access. After discussions with the dconf and Flatpak maintainers, a plan was outlined to address both issues. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does D-Bus handle process identity for Flatpak or Snap containers when using Portals? Portal authors need to distinguish whether an incoming D-Bus connection comes from an uncontained process (running with full user privileges) or a contained process (sandboxed by Flatpak or Snap). Without this distinction, portals cannot apply appropriate access controls. Work at the GTK+ Hackfest focused on enabling this identification as a foundational requirement for secure portal interactions. _Developers building Flatpak portals or sandboxed Linux apps track D-Bus security discussions like this on daily.dev._ ### How should dconf access work for sandboxed Flatpak apps? A sandboxed Flatpak app should have read/write access only to its own subtree of the dconf configuration space, with no access to the rest. The current model gives contained apps either full access or no access at all, which is too coarse-grained. A plan to fix this was developed in collaboration with dconf maintainer Allison Lortie and Flatpak maintainer Alexander Larsson. _Teams shipping Flatpak-packaged apps that depend on dconf can follow sandboxing developments like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [systemd-appd Is A New Component Being Planned By Flatpak Developers](https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-appd-is-a-new-component-being-planned-by-flatpak-developers-jyk6bcpzn) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I tested every Linux desktop and realized fragmentation isn't a problem anymore](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-every-linux-desktop-and-realized-fragmentation-isn-t-a-problem-anymore-u23bgb9se) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Flatpak from the CLI sucks](https://daily.dev/posts/flatpak-from-the-cli-sucks-dsbqj2za8) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [⬢ Distrobox: An In-depth Guide for Developers - Part 1](https://daily.dev/posts/distrobox-an-in-depth-guide-for-developers---part-1-o1vg9vhiu) · KDAB Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/gtk-hackfest-2017-d-bus-communication-with-containers-vvnuicvxt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"GTK+ Hackfest 2017: D-Bus communication with containers","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/gtk-hackfest-2017-d-bus-communication-with-containers-vvnuicvxt","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/gtk-hackfest-2017-d-bus-communication-with-containers-vvnuicvxt"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:55:42.126Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:38:46.610Z","description":"At the GTK+ Hackfest in London, Simon McVittie explored how to improve D-Bus communication for app container technologies like Flatpak and Snap. 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