1. A method, comprising: in an operating system environment controlled by a single operating system kernel instance, establishing a global zone and at least one non-global zone for isolating processes from processes in other non-global zones; receiving from a first process executing in association with the non-global zone a first request to perform an operation; in response to receiving the first request, determining whether performing the requested operation enables the first process to obtain additional privileges for which the first process is not authorized; and denying the first request if the first process is enabled to obtain the additional privileges.