On linux containers usually involve some more primitives than cgroups and namespaces. Bind mounts, overlayfs (TFA), veth network interfaces (to connect the network namespaces), network bridges, memfd, seccomp, procfs etc. are all bits and pieces that are used by most containers/sandboxes.
Many of those pieces can be useful on their own. For example you don't need a full container if all you want to do is to ensure that some applications use a VPN and others use your public network address. A network namespace is all you need and those are accessible through simple cli tools such as `unshare` and `ip netns` and don't require behemoths like dockerd.
The tricky part is using them all together correctly, initializing them in the right order, not getting the control daemons confused by running in the wrong context and so on. That's where many of the security vulnerabilities come from.
Thanks!