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I am still tired of having to find indirect ways to determine what security modules are active on a system. I have added /sys/kernel/security/lsm, which contains a comma separated list of the active security modules. No more groping around in /proc/filesystems or other clever hacks. Unchanged from previous versions except for being updated to the latest security next branch. Signed-off-by: Casey Schaufler <casey@schaufler-ca.com> Acked-by: John Johansen <john.johansen@canonical.com> Acked-by: Paul Moore <paul@paul-moore.com> Acked-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> Signed-off-by: James Morris <james.l.morris@oracle.com>
42 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
42 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
Linux Security Module framework
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-------------------------------
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The Linux Security Module (LSM) framework provides a mechanism for
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various security checks to be hooked by new kernel extensions. The name
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"module" is a bit of a misnomer since these extensions are not actually
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loadable kernel modules. Instead, they are selectable at build-time via
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CONFIG_DEFAULT_SECURITY and can be overridden at boot-time via the
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"security=..." kernel command line argument, in the case where multiple
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LSMs were built into a given kernel.
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The primary users of the LSM interface are Mandatory Access Control
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(MAC) extensions which provide a comprehensive security policy. Examples
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include SELinux, Smack, Tomoyo, and AppArmor. In addition to the larger
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MAC extensions, other extensions can be built using the LSM to provide
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specific changes to system operation when these tweaks are not available
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in the core functionality of Linux itself.
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Without a specific LSM built into the kernel, the default LSM will be the
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Linux capabilities system. Most LSMs choose to extend the capabilities
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system, building their checks on top of the defined capability hooks.
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For more details on capabilities, see capabilities(7) in the Linux
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man-pages project.
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A list of the active security modules can be found by reading
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/sys/kernel/security/lsm. This is a comma separated list, and
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will always include the capability module. The list reflects the
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order in which checks are made. The capability module will always
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be first, followed by any "minor" modules (e.g. Yama) and then
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the one "major" module (e.g. SELinux) if there is one configured.
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Based on https://lkml.org/lkml/2007/10/26/215,
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a new LSM is accepted into the kernel when its intent (a description of
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what it tries to protect against and in what cases one would expect to
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use it) has been appropriately documented in Documentation/security/.
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This allows an LSM's code to be easily compared to its goals, and so
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that end users and distros can make a more informed decision about which
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LSMs suit their requirements.
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For extensive documentation on the available LSM hook interfaces, please
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see include/linux/security.h.
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