Setup unpriviledged bridged network in qemu

Ensure bridge-utils are installed

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$ sudo apt-get install bridge-utils

Edit /etc/network/interfaces, set default ethernet interface to manual and add bridge instead

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auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
  bridge_ports eth0
  bridge_stp off
  bridge_maxwait 0
  bridge_fd 0

Create /etc/qemu/bridge.conf, and set SUID bit of qemu-bridge-helper (so this setup is not fully unpriviledged)

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$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/qemu
$ echo 'allow br0' | sudo tee -a /etc/qemu/bridge.conf
$ sudo chmod u+s /usr/lib/qemu/qemu-bridge-helper

Now br0 can be used in qemu:///session without root priviledges.