RELIABLY TERMINATING PROCESSES IN A SYSTEM WITH CONFINED EXECUTION ENVIRONMENTS

Terminating a process executing within a container is described. An access restriction applicable to the process is temporarily modified with a policy change that prevents creating new processes within the container. The policy change prevents operations that would allow processes within the container from performing a fork operation, or otherwise spawning new processes within the container. The policy change may be, for example, applied by means of a rule added or removed from an access restriction policy. While the processes are prevented from creating new processes, one specified process or all processes within the container are terminated. After termination of the process(es), the policy change can be reversed, allowing normal use of the container.