linux/Documentation/ABI/testing/evm
Matthew Garrett ae1ba1676b EVM: Allow userland to permit modification of EVM-protected metadata
When EVM is enabled it forbids modification of metadata protected by
EVM unless there is already a valid EVM signature. If any modification
is made, the kernel will then generate a new EVM HMAC. However, this
does not map well on use cases which use only asymmetric EVM signatures,
as in this scenario the kernel is unable to generate new signatures.

This patch extends the /sys/kernel/security/evm interface to allow
userland to request that modification of these xattrs be permitted. This
is only permitted if no keys have already been loaded. In this
configuration, modifying the metadata will invalidate the EVM appraisal
on the file in question. This allows packaging systems to write out new
files, set the relevant extended attributes and then move them into
place.

There's also some refactoring of the use of evm_initialized in order to
avoid heading down codepaths that assume there's a key available.

Signed-off-by: Matthew Garrett <mjg59@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Mimi Zohar <zohar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2017-12-11 14:27:31 -05:00

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What: security/evm
Date: March 2011
Contact: Mimi Zohar <zohar@us.ibm.com>
Description:
EVM protects a file's security extended attributes(xattrs)
against integrity attacks. The initial method maintains an
HMAC-sha1 value across the extended attributes, storing the
value as the extended attribute 'security.evm'.
EVM supports two classes of security.evm. The first is
an HMAC-sha1 generated locally with a
trusted/encrypted key stored in the Kernel Key
Retention System. The second is a digital signature
generated either locally or remotely using an
asymmetric key. These keys are loaded onto root's
keyring using keyctl, and EVM is then enabled by
echoing a value to <securityfs>/evm made up of the
following bits:
Bit Effect
0 Enable HMAC validation and creation
1 Enable digital signature validation
2 Permit modification of EVM-protected metadata at
runtime. Not supported if HMAC validation and
creation is enabled.
31 Disable further runtime modification of EVM policy
For example:
echo 1 ><securityfs>/evm
will enable HMAC validation and creation
echo 0x80000003 ><securityfs>/evm
will enable HMAC and digital signature validation and
HMAC creation and disable all further modification of policy.
echo 0x80000006 ><securityfs>/evm
will enable digital signature validation, permit
modification of EVM-protected metadata and
disable all further modification of policy
Note that once a key has been loaded, it will no longer be
possible to enable metadata modification.
Until key loading has been signaled EVM can not create
or validate the 'security.evm' xattr, but returns
INTEGRITY_UNKNOWN. Loading keys and signaling EVM
should be done as early as possible. Normally this is
done in the initramfs, which has already been measured
as part of the trusted boot. For more information on
creating and loading existing trusted/encrypted keys,
refer to:
Documentation/security/keys/trusted-encrypted.rst. Both
dracut (via 97masterkey and 98integrity) and systemd (via
core/ima-setup) have support for loading keys at boot
time.