Linux kernel mirror (for testing)
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kernel
os
linux
1=====
2Smack
3=====
4
5
6 "Good for you, you've decided to clean the elevator!"
7 - The Elevator, from Dark Star
8
9Smack is the Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel.
10Smack is a kernel based implementation of mandatory access
11control that includes simplicity in its primary design goals.
12
13Smack is not the only Mandatory Access Control scheme
14available for Linux. Those new to Mandatory Access Control
15are encouraged to compare Smack with the other mechanisms
16available to determine which is best suited to the problem
17at hand.
18
19Smack consists of three major components:
20
21 - The kernel
22 - Basic utilities, which are helpful but not required
23 - Configuration data
24
25The kernel component of Smack is implemented as a Linux
26Security Modules (LSM) module. It requires netlabel and
27works best with file systems that support extended attributes,
28although xattr support is not strictly required.
29It is safe to run a Smack kernel under a "vanilla" distribution.
30
31Smack kernels use the CIPSO IP option. Some network
32configurations are intolerant of IP options and can impede
33access to systems that use them as Smack does.
34
35Smack is used in the Tizen operating system. Please
36go to http://wiki.tizen.org for information about how
37Smack is used in Tizen.
38
39The current git repository for Smack user space is:
40
41 git://github.com/smack-team/smack.git
42
43This should make and install on most modern distributions.
44There are five commands included in smackutil:
45
46chsmack:
47 display or set Smack extended attribute values
48
49smackctl:
50 load the Smack access rules
51
52smackaccess:
53 report if a process with one label has access
54 to an object with another
55
56These two commands are obsolete with the introduction of
57the smackfs/load2 and smackfs/cipso2 interfaces.
58
59smackload:
60 properly formats data for writing to smackfs/load
61
62smackcipso:
63 properly formats data for writing to smackfs/cipso
64
65In keeping with the intent of Smack, configuration data is
66minimal and not strictly required. The most important
67configuration step is mounting the smackfs pseudo filesystem.
68If smackutil is installed the startup script will take care
69of this, but it can be manually as well.
70
71Add this line to ``/etc/fstab``::
72
73 smackfs /sys/fs/smackfs smackfs defaults 0 0
74
75The ``/sys/fs/smackfs`` directory is created by the kernel.
76
77Smack uses extended attributes (xattrs) to store labels on filesystem
78objects. The attributes are stored in the extended attribute security
79name space. A process must have ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN`` to change any of these
80attributes.
81
82The extended attributes that Smack uses are:
83
84SMACK64
85 Used to make access control decisions. In almost all cases
86 the label given to a new filesystem object will be the label
87 of the process that created it.
88
89SMACK64EXEC
90 The Smack label of a process that execs a program file with
91 this attribute set will run with this attribute's value.
92
93SMACK64MMAP
94 Don't allow the file to be mmapped by a process whose Smack
95 label does not allow all of the access permitted to a process
96 with the label contained in this attribute. This is a very
97 specific use case for shared libraries.
98
99SMACK64TRANSMUTE
100 Can only have the value "TRUE". If this attribute is present
101 on a directory when an object is created in the directory and
102 the Smack rule (more below) that permitted the write access
103 to the directory includes the transmute ("t") mode the object
104 gets the label of the directory instead of the label of the
105 creating process. If the object being created is a directory
106 the SMACK64TRANSMUTE attribute is set as well.
107
108SMACK64IPIN
109 This attribute is only available on file descriptors for sockets.
110 Use the Smack label in this attribute for access control
111 decisions on packets being delivered to this socket.
112
113SMACK64IPOUT
114 This attribute is only available on file descriptors for sockets.
115 Use the Smack label in this attribute for access control
116 decisions on packets coming from this socket.
117
118There are multiple ways to set a Smack label on a file::
119
120 # attr -S -s SMACK64 -V "value" path
121 # chsmack -a value path
122
123A process can see the Smack label it is running with by
124reading ``/proc/self/attr/current``. A process with ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN``
125can set the process Smack by writing there.
126
127Most Smack configuration is accomplished by writing to files
128in the smackfs filesystem. This pseudo-filesystem is mounted
129on ``/sys/fs/smackfs``.
130
131access
132 Provided for backward compatibility. The access2 interface
133 is preferred and should be used instead.
134 This interface reports whether a subject with the specified
135 Smack label has a particular access to an object with a
136 specified Smack label. Write a fixed format access rule to
137 this file. The next read will indicate whether the access
138 would be permitted. The text will be either "1" indicating
139 access, or "0" indicating denial.
140
141access2
142 This interface reports whether a subject with the specified
143 Smack label has a particular access to an object with a
144 specified Smack label. Write a long format access rule to
145 this file. The next read will indicate whether the access
146 would be permitted. The text will be either "1" indicating
147 access, or "0" indicating denial.
148
149ambient
150 This contains the Smack label applied to unlabeled network
151 packets.
152
153change-rule
154 This interface allows modification of existing access control rules.
155 The format accepted on write is::
156
157 "%s %s %s %s"
158
159 where the first string is the subject label, the second the
160 object label, the third the access to allow and the fourth the
161 access to deny. The access strings may contain only the characters
162 "rwxat-". If a rule for a given subject and object exists it will be
163 modified by enabling the permissions in the third string and disabling
164 those in the fourth string. If there is no such rule it will be
165 created using the access specified in the third and the fourth strings.
166
167cipso
168 Provided for backward compatibility. The cipso2 interface
169 is preferred and should be used instead.
170 This interface allows a specific CIPSO header to be assigned
171 to a Smack label. The format accepted on write is::
172
173 "%24s%4d%4d"["%4d"]...
174
175 The first string is a fixed Smack label. The first number is
176 the level to use. The second number is the number of categories.
177 The following numbers are the categories::
178
179 "level-3-cats-5-19 3 2 5 19"
180
181cipso2
182 This interface allows a specific CIPSO header to be assigned
183 to a Smack label. The format accepted on write is::
184
185 "%s%4d%4d"["%4d"]...
186
187 The first string is a long Smack label. The first number is
188 the level to use. The second number is the number of categories.
189 The following numbers are the categories::
190
191 "level-3-cats-5-19 3 2 5 19"
192
193direct
194 This contains the CIPSO level used for Smack direct label
195 representation in network packets.
196
197doi
198 This contains the CIPSO domain of interpretation used in
199 network packets.
200
201ipv6host
202 This interface allows specific IPv6 internet addresses to be
203 treated as single label hosts. Packets are sent to single
204 label hosts only from processes that have Smack write access
205 to the host label. All packets received from single label hosts
206 are given the specified label. The format accepted on write is::
207
208 "%h:%h:%h:%h:%h:%h:%h:%h label" or
209 "%h:%h:%h:%h:%h:%h:%h:%h/%d label".
210
211 The "::" address shortcut is not supported.
212 If label is "-DELETE" a matched entry will be deleted.
213
214load
215 Provided for backward compatibility. The load2 interface
216 is preferred and should be used instead.
217 This interface allows access control rules in addition to
218 the system defined rules to be specified. The format accepted
219 on write is::
220
221 "%24s%24s%5s"
222
223 where the first string is the subject label, the second the
224 object label, and the third the requested access. The access
225 string may contain only the characters "rwxat-", and specifies
226 which sort of access is allowed. The "-" is a placeholder for
227 permissions that are not allowed. The string "r-x--" would
228 specify read and execute access. Labels are limited to 23
229 characters in length.
230
231load2
232 This interface allows access control rules in addition to
233 the system defined rules to be specified. The format accepted
234 on write is::
235
236 "%s %s %s"
237
238 where the first string is the subject label, the second the
239 object label, and the third the requested access. The access
240 string may contain only the characters "rwxat-", and specifies
241 which sort of access is allowed. The "-" is a placeholder for
242 permissions that are not allowed. The string "r-x--" would
243 specify read and execute access.
244
245load-self
246 Provided for backward compatibility. The load-self2 interface
247 is preferred and should be used instead.
248 This interface allows process specific access rules to be
249 defined. These rules are only consulted if access would
250 otherwise be permitted, and are intended to provide additional
251 restrictions on the process. The format is the same as for
252 the load interface.
253
254load-self2
255 This interface allows process specific access rules to be
256 defined. These rules are only consulted if access would
257 otherwise be permitted, and are intended to provide additional
258 restrictions on the process. The format is the same as for
259 the load2 interface.
260
261logging
262 This contains the Smack logging state.
263
264mapped
265 This contains the CIPSO level used for Smack mapped label
266 representation in network packets.
267
268netlabel
269 This interface allows specific internet addresses to be
270 treated as single label hosts. Packets are sent to single
271 label hosts without CIPSO headers, but only from processes
272 that have Smack write access to the host label. All packets
273 received from single label hosts are given the specified
274 label. The format accepted on write is::
275
276 "%d.%d.%d.%d label" or "%d.%d.%d.%d/%d label".
277
278 If the label specified is "-CIPSO" the address is treated
279 as a host that supports CIPSO headers.
280
281onlycap
282 This contains labels processes must have for CAP_MAC_ADMIN
283 and ``CAP_MAC_OVERRIDE`` to be effective. If this file is empty
284 these capabilities are effective at for processes with any
285 label. The values are set by writing the desired labels, separated
286 by spaces, to the file or cleared by writing "-" to the file.
287
288ptrace
289 This is used to define the current ptrace policy
290
291 0 - default:
292 this is the policy that relies on Smack access rules.
293 For the ``PTRACE_READ`` a subject needs to have a read access on
294 object. For the ``PTRACE_ATTACH`` a read-write access is required.
295
296 1 - exact:
297 this is the policy that limits ``PTRACE_ATTACH``. Attach is
298 only allowed when subject's and object's labels are equal.
299 ``PTRACE_READ`` is not affected. Can be overridden with ``CAP_SYS_PTRACE``.
300
301 2 - draconian:
302 this policy behaves like the 'exact' above with an
303 exception that it can't be overridden with ``CAP_SYS_PTRACE``.
304
305revoke-subject
306 Writing a Smack label here sets the access to '-' for all access
307 rules with that subject label.
308
309unconfined
310 If the kernel is configured with ``CONFIG_SECURITY_SMACK_BRINGUP``
311 a process with ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN`` can write a label into this interface.
312 Thereafter, accesses that involve that label will be logged and
313 the access permitted if it wouldn't be otherwise. Note that this
314 is dangerous and can ruin the proper labeling of your system.
315 It should never be used in production.
316
317relabel-self
318 This interface contains a list of labels to which the process can
319 transition to, by writing to ``/proc/self/attr/current``.
320 Normally a process can change its own label to any legal value, but only
321 if it has ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN``. This interface allows a process without
322 ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN`` to relabel itself to one of labels from predefined list.
323 A process without ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN`` can change its label only once. When it
324 does, this list will be cleared.
325 The values are set by writing the desired labels, separated
326 by spaces, to the file or cleared by writing "-" to the file.
327
328If you are using the smackload utility
329you can add access rules in ``/etc/smack/accesses``. They take the form::
330
331 subjectlabel objectlabel access
332
333access is a combination of the letters rwxatb which specify the
334kind of access permitted a subject with subjectlabel on an
335object with objectlabel. If there is no rule no access is allowed.
336
337Look for additional programs on http://schaufler-ca.com
338
339The Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel (Whitepaper)
340===========================================================
341
342Casey Schaufler
343casey@schaufler-ca.com
344
345Mandatory Access Control
346------------------------
347
348Computer systems employ a variety of schemes to constrain how information is
349shared among the people and services using the machine. Some of these schemes
350allow the program or user to decide what other programs or users are allowed
351access to pieces of data. These schemes are called discretionary access
352control mechanisms because the access control is specified at the discretion
353of the user. Other schemes do not leave the decision regarding what a user or
354program can access up to users or programs. These schemes are called mandatory
355access control mechanisms because you don't have a choice regarding the users
356or programs that have access to pieces of data.
357
358Bell & LaPadula
359---------------
360
361From the middle of the 1980's until the turn of the century Mandatory Access
362Control (MAC) was very closely associated with the Bell & LaPadula security
363model, a mathematical description of the United States Department of Defense
364policy for marking paper documents. MAC in this form enjoyed a following
365within the Capital Beltway and Scandinavian supercomputer centers but was
366often sited as failing to address general needs.
367
368Domain Type Enforcement
369-----------------------
370
371Around the turn of the century Domain Type Enforcement (DTE) became popular.
372This scheme organizes users, programs, and data into domains that are
373protected from each other. This scheme has been widely deployed as a component
374of popular Linux distributions. The administrative overhead required to
375maintain this scheme and the detailed understanding of the whole system
376necessary to provide a secure domain mapping leads to the scheme being
377disabled or used in limited ways in the majority of cases.
378
379Smack
380-----
381
382Smack is a Mandatory Access Control mechanism designed to provide useful MAC
383while avoiding the pitfalls of its predecessors. The limitations of Bell &
384LaPadula are addressed by providing a scheme whereby access can be controlled
385according to the requirements of the system and its purpose rather than those
386imposed by an arcane government policy. The complexity of Domain Type
387Enforcement and avoided by defining access controls in terms of the access
388modes already in use.
389
390Smack Terminology
391-----------------
392
393The jargon used to talk about Smack will be familiar to those who have dealt
394with other MAC systems and shouldn't be too difficult for the uninitiated to
395pick up. There are four terms that are used in a specific way and that are
396especially important:
397
398 Subject:
399 A subject is an active entity on the computer system.
400 On Smack a subject is a task, which is in turn the basic unit
401 of execution.
402
403 Object:
404 An object is a passive entity on the computer system.
405 On Smack files of all types, IPC, and tasks can be objects.
406
407 Access:
408 Any attempt by a subject to put information into or get
409 information from an object is an access.
410
411 Label:
412 Data that identifies the Mandatory Access Control
413 characteristics of a subject or an object.
414
415These definitions are consistent with the traditional use in the security
416community. There are also some terms from Linux that are likely to crop up:
417
418 Capability:
419 A task that possesses a capability has permission to
420 violate an aspect of the system security policy, as identified by
421 the specific capability. A task that possesses one or more
422 capabilities is a privileged task, whereas a task with no
423 capabilities is an unprivileged task.
424
425 Privilege:
426 A task that is allowed to violate the system security
427 policy is said to have privilege. As of this writing a task can
428 have privilege either by possessing capabilities or by having an
429 effective user of root.
430
431Smack Basics
432------------
433
434Smack is an extension to a Linux system. It enforces additional restrictions
435on what subjects can access which objects, based on the labels attached to
436each of the subject and the object.
437
438Labels
439~~~~~~
440
441Smack labels are ASCII character strings. They can be up to 255 characters
442long, but keeping them to twenty-three characters is recommended.
443Single character labels using special characters, that being anything
444other than a letter or digit, are reserved for use by the Smack development
445team. Smack labels are unstructured, case sensitive, and the only operation
446ever performed on them is comparison for equality. Smack labels cannot
447contain unprintable characters, the "/" (slash), the "\" (backslash), the "'"
448(quote) and '"' (double-quote) characters.
449Smack labels cannot begin with a '-'. This is reserved for special options.
450
451There are some predefined labels::
452
453 _ Pronounced "floor", a single underscore character.
454 ^ Pronounced "hat", a single circumflex character.
455 * Pronounced "star", a single asterisk character.
456 ? Pronounced "huh", a single question mark character.
457 @ Pronounced "web", a single at sign character.
458
459Every task on a Smack system is assigned a label. The Smack label
460of a process will usually be assigned by the system initialization
461mechanism.
462
463Access Rules
464~~~~~~~~~~~~
465
466Smack uses the traditional access modes of Linux. These modes are read,
467execute, write, and occasionally append. There are a few cases where the
468access mode may not be obvious. These include:
469
470 Signals:
471 A signal is a write operation from the subject task to
472 the object task.
473
474 Internet Domain IPC:
475 Transmission of a packet is considered a
476 write operation from the source task to the destination task.
477
478Smack restricts access based on the label attached to a subject and the label
479attached to the object it is trying to access. The rules enforced are, in
480order:
481
482 1. Any access requested by a task labeled "*" is denied.
483 2. A read or execute access requested by a task labeled "^"
484 is permitted.
485 3. A read or execute access requested on an object labeled "_"
486 is permitted.
487 4. Any access requested on an object labeled "*" is permitted.
488 5. Any access requested by a task on an object with the same
489 label is permitted.
490 6. Any access requested that is explicitly defined in the loaded
491 rule set is permitted.
492 7. Any other access is denied.
493
494Smack Access Rules
495~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
496
497With the isolation provided by Smack access separation is simple. There are
498many interesting cases where limited access by subjects to objects with
499different labels is desired. One example is the familiar spy model of
500sensitivity, where a scientist working on a highly classified project would be
501able to read documents of lower classifications and anything she writes will
502be "born" highly classified. To accommodate such schemes Smack includes a
503mechanism for specifying rules allowing access between labels.
504
505Access Rule Format
506~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
507
508The format of an access rule is::
509
510 subject-label object-label access
511
512Where subject-label is the Smack label of the task, object-label is the Smack
513label of the thing being accessed, and access is a string specifying the sort
514of access allowed. The access specification is searched for letters that
515describe access modes:
516
517 a: indicates that append access should be granted.
518 r: indicates that read access should be granted.
519 w: indicates that write access should be granted.
520 x: indicates that execute access should be granted.
521 t: indicates that the rule requests transmutation.
522 b: indicates that the rule should be reported for bring-up.
523
524Uppercase values for the specification letters are allowed as well.
525Access mode specifications can be in any order. Examples of acceptable rules
526are::
527
528 TopSecret Secret rx
529 Secret Unclass R
530 Manager Game x
531 User HR w
532 Snap Crackle rwxatb
533 New Old rRrRr
534 Closed Off -
535
536Examples of unacceptable rules are::
537
538 Top Secret Secret rx
539 Ace Ace r
540 Odd spells waxbeans
541
542Spaces are not allowed in labels. Since a subject always has access to files
543with the same label specifying a rule for that case is pointless. Only
544valid letters (rwxatbRWXATB) and the dash ('-') character are allowed in
545access specifications. The dash is a placeholder, so "a-r" is the same
546as "ar". A lone dash is used to specify that no access should be allowed.
547
548Applying Access Rules
549~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
550
551The developers of Linux rarely define new sorts of things, usually importing
552schemes and concepts from other systems. Most often, the other systems are
553variants of Unix. Unix has many endearing properties, but consistency of
554access control models is not one of them. Smack strives to treat accesses as
555uniformly as is sensible while keeping with the spirit of the underlying
556mechanism.
557
558File system objects including files, directories, named pipes, symbolic links,
559and devices require access permissions that closely match those used by mode
560bit access. To open a file for reading read access is required on the file. To
561search a directory requires execute access. Creating a file with write access
562requires both read and write access on the containing directory. Deleting a
563file requires read and write access to the file and to the containing
564directory. It is possible that a user may be able to see that a file exists
565but not any of its attributes by the circumstance of having read access to the
566containing directory but not to the differently labeled file. This is an
567artifact of the file name being data in the directory, not a part of the file.
568
569If a directory is marked as transmuting (SMACK64TRANSMUTE=TRUE) and the
570access rule that allows a process to create an object in that directory
571includes 't' access the label assigned to the new object will be that
572of the directory, not the creating process. This makes it much easier
573for two processes with different labels to share data without granting
574access to all of their files.
575
576IPC objects, message queues, semaphore sets, and memory segments exist in flat
577namespaces and access requests are only required to match the object in
578question.
579
580Process objects reflect tasks on the system and the Smack label used to access
581them is the same Smack label that the task would use for its own access
582attempts. Sending a signal via the kill() system call is a write operation
583from the signaler to the recipient. Debugging a process requires both reading
584and writing. Creating a new task is an internal operation that results in two
585tasks with identical Smack labels and requires no access checks.
586
587Sockets are data structures attached to processes and sending a packet from
588one process to another requires that the sender have write access to the
589receiver. The receiver is not required to have read access to the sender.
590
591Setting Access Rules
592~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
593
594The configuration file /etc/smack/accesses contains the rules to be set at
595system startup. The contents are written to the special file
596/sys/fs/smackfs/load2. Rules can be added at any time and take effect
597immediately. For any pair of subject and object labels there can be only
598one rule, with the most recently specified overriding any earlier
599specification.
600
601Task Attribute
602~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
603
604The Smack label of a process can be read from ``/proc/<pid>/attr/current``. A
605process can read its own Smack label from ``/proc/self/attr/current``. A
606privileged process can change its own Smack label by writing to
607``/proc/self/attr/current`` but not the label of another process.
608
609Format of writing is : only the label or the label followed by one of the
6103 trailers: ``\n`` (by common agreement for ``/proc/...`` interfaces),
611``\0`` (because some applications incorrectly include it),
612``\n\0`` (because we think some applications may incorrectly include it).
613
614File Attribute
615~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
616
617The Smack label of a filesystem object is stored as an extended attribute
618named SMACK64 on the file. This attribute is in the security namespace. It can
619only be changed by a process with privilege.
620
621Privilege
622~~~~~~~~~
623
624A process with CAP_MAC_OVERRIDE or CAP_MAC_ADMIN is privileged.
625CAP_MAC_OVERRIDE allows the process access to objects it would
626be denied otherwise. CAP_MAC_ADMIN allows a process to change
627Smack data, including rules and attributes.
628
629Smack Networking
630~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
631
632As mentioned before, Smack enforces access control on network protocol
633transmissions. Every packet sent by a Smack process is tagged with its Smack
634label. This is done by adding a CIPSO tag to the header of the IP packet. Each
635packet received is expected to have a CIPSO tag that identifies the label and
636if it lacks such a tag the network ambient label is assumed. Before the packet
637is delivered a check is made to determine that a subject with the label on the
638packet has write access to the receiving process and if that is not the case
639the packet is dropped.
640
641CIPSO Configuration
642~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
643
644It is normally unnecessary to specify the CIPSO configuration. The default
645values used by the system handle all internal cases. Smack will compose CIPSO
646label values to match the Smack labels being used without administrative
647intervention. Unlabeled packets that come into the system will be given the
648ambient label.
649
650Smack requires configuration in the case where packets from a system that is
651not Smack that speaks CIPSO may be encountered. Usually this will be a Trusted
652Solaris system, but there are other, less widely deployed systems out there.
653CIPSO provides 3 important values, a Domain Of Interpretation (DOI), a level,
654and a category set with each packet. The DOI is intended to identify a group
655of systems that use compatible labeling schemes, and the DOI specified on the
656Smack system must match that of the remote system or packets will be
657discarded. The DOI is 3 by default. The value can be read from
658/sys/fs/smackfs/doi and can be changed by writing to /sys/fs/smackfs/doi.
659
660The label and category set are mapped to a Smack label as defined in
661/etc/smack/cipso.
662
663A Smack/CIPSO mapping has the form::
664
665 smack level [category [category]*]
666
667Smack does not expect the level or category sets to be related in any
668particular way and does not assume or assign accesses based on them. Some
669examples of mappings::
670
671 TopSecret 7
672 TS:A,B 7 1 2
673 SecBDE 5 2 4 6
674 RAFTERS 7 12 26
675
676The ":" and "," characters are permitted in a Smack label but have no special
677meaning.
678
679The mapping of Smack labels to CIPSO values is defined by writing to
680/sys/fs/smackfs/cipso2.
681
682In addition to explicit mappings Smack supports direct CIPSO mappings. One
683CIPSO level is used to indicate that the category set passed in the packet is
684in fact an encoding of the Smack label. The level used is 250 by default. The
685value can be read from /sys/fs/smackfs/direct and changed by writing to
686/sys/fs/smackfs/direct.
687
688Socket Attributes
689~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
690
691There are two attributes that are associated with sockets. These attributes
692can only be set by privileged tasks, but any task can read them for their own
693sockets.
694
695 SMACK64IPIN:
696 The Smack label of the task object. A privileged
697 program that will enforce policy may set this to the star label.
698
699 SMACK64IPOUT:
700 The Smack label transmitted with outgoing packets.
701 A privileged program may set this to match the label of another
702 task with which it hopes to communicate.
703
704UNIX domain socket (UDS) with a BSD address functions both as a file in a
705filesystem and as a socket. As a file, it carries the SMACK64 attribute. This
706attribute is not involved in Smack security enforcement and is immutably
707assigned the label "*".
708
709Smack Netlabel Exceptions
710~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
711
712You will often find that your labeled application has to talk to the outside,
713unlabeled world. To do this there's a special file /sys/fs/smackfs/netlabel
714where you can add some exceptions in the form of::
715
716 @IP1 LABEL1 or
717 @IP2/MASK LABEL2
718
719It means that your application will have unlabeled access to @IP1 if it has
720write access on LABEL1, and access to the subnet @IP2/MASK if it has write
721access on LABEL2.
722
723Entries in the /sys/fs/smackfs/netlabel file are matched by longest mask
724first, like in classless IPv4 routing.
725
726A special label '@' and an option '-CIPSO' can be used there::
727
728 @ means Internet, any application with any label has access to it
729 -CIPSO means standard CIPSO networking
730
731If you don't know what CIPSO is and don't plan to use it, you can just do::
732
733 echo 127.0.0.1 -CIPSO > /sys/fs/smackfs/netlabel
734 echo 0.0.0.0/0 @ > /sys/fs/smackfs/netlabel
735
736If you use CIPSO on your 192.168.0.0/16 local network and need also unlabeled
737Internet access, you can have::
738
739 echo 127.0.0.1 -CIPSO > /sys/fs/smackfs/netlabel
740 echo 192.168.0.0/16 -CIPSO > /sys/fs/smackfs/netlabel
741 echo 0.0.0.0/0 @ > /sys/fs/smackfs/netlabel
742
743Writing Applications for Smack
744------------------------------
745
746There are three sorts of applications that will run on a Smack system. How an
747application interacts with Smack will determine what it will have to do to
748work properly under Smack.
749
750Smack Ignorant Applications
751---------------------------
752
753By far the majority of applications have no reason whatever to care about the
754unique properties of Smack. Since invoking a program has no impact on the
755Smack label associated with the process the only concern likely to arise is
756whether the process has execute access to the program.
757
758Smack Relevant Applications
759---------------------------
760
761Some programs can be improved by teaching them about Smack, but do not make
762any security decisions themselves. The utility ls(1) is one example of such a
763program.
764
765Smack Enforcing Applications
766----------------------------
767
768These are special programs that not only know about Smack, but participate in
769the enforcement of system policy. In most cases these are the programs that
770set up user sessions. There are also network services that provide information
771to processes running with various labels.
772
773File System Interfaces
774----------------------
775
776Smack maintains labels on file system objects using extended attributes. The
777Smack label of a file, directory, or other file system object can be obtained
778using getxattr(2)::
779
780 len = getxattr("/", "security.SMACK64", value, sizeof (value));
781
782will put the Smack label of the root directory into value. A privileged
783process can set the Smack label of a file system object with setxattr(2)::
784
785 len = strlen("Rubble");
786 rc = setxattr("/foo", "security.SMACK64", "Rubble", len, 0);
787
788will set the Smack label of /foo to "Rubble" if the program has appropriate
789privilege.
790
791Socket Interfaces
792-----------------
793
794The socket attributes can be read using fgetxattr(2).
795
796A privileged process can set the Smack label of outgoing packets with
797fsetxattr(2)::
798
799 len = strlen("Rubble");
800 rc = fsetxattr(fd, "security.SMACK64IPOUT", "Rubble", len, 0);
801
802will set the Smack label "Rubble" on packets going out from the socket if the
803program has appropriate privilege::
804
805 rc = fsetxattr(fd, "security.SMACK64IPIN, "*", strlen("*"), 0);
806
807will set the Smack label "*" as the object label against which incoming
808packets will be checked if the program has appropriate privilege.
809
810Administration
811--------------
812
813Smack supports some mount options:
814
815 smackfsdef=label:
816 specifies the label to give files that lack
817 the Smack label extended attribute.
818
819 smackfsroot=label:
820 specifies the label to assign the root of the
821 file system if it lacks the Smack extended attribute.
822
823 smackfshat=label:
824 specifies a label that must have read access to
825 all labels set on the filesystem. Not yet enforced.
826
827 smackfsfloor=label:
828 specifies a label to which all labels set on the
829 filesystem must have read access. Not yet enforced.
830
831 smackfstransmute=label:
832 behaves exactly like smackfsroot except that it also
833 sets the transmute flag on the root of the mount
834
835These mount options apply to all file system types.
836
837Smack auditing
838--------------
839
840If you want Smack auditing of security events, you need to set CONFIG_AUDIT
841in your kernel configuration.
842By default, all denied events will be audited. You can change this behavior by
843writing a single character to the /sys/fs/smackfs/logging file::
844
845 0 : no logging
846 1 : log denied (default)
847 2 : log accepted
848 3 : log denied & accepted
849
850Events are logged as 'key=value' pairs, for each event you at least will get
851the subject, the object, the rights requested, the action, the kernel function
852that triggered the event, plus other pairs depending on the type of event
853audited.
854
855Bringup Mode
856------------
857
858Bringup mode provides logging features that can make application
859configuration and system bringup easier. Configure the kernel with
860CONFIG_SECURITY_SMACK_BRINGUP to enable these features. When bringup
861mode is enabled accesses that succeed due to rules marked with the "b"
862access mode will logged. When a new label is introduced for processes
863rules can be added aggressively, marked with the "b". The logging allows
864tracking of which rules actual get used for that label.
865
866Another feature of bringup mode is the "unconfined" option. Writing
867a label to /sys/fs/smackfs/unconfined makes subjects with that label
868able to access any object, and objects with that label accessible to
869all subjects. Any access that is granted because a label is unconfined
870is logged. This feature is dangerous, as files and directories may
871be created in places they couldn't if the policy were being enforced.