linux/Documentation/Smack.txt
<<
>>
Prefs
   1
   2
   3    "Good for you, you've decided to clean the elevator!"
   4    - The Elevator, from Dark Star
   5
   6Smack is the the Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel.
   7Smack is a kernel based implementation of mandatory access
   8control that includes simplicity in its primary design goals.
   9
  10Smack is not the only Mandatory Access Control scheme
  11available for Linux. Those new to Mandatory Access Control
  12are encouraged to compare Smack with the other mechanisms
  13available to determine which is best suited to the problem
  14at hand.
  15
  16Smack consists of three major components:
  17    - The kernel
  18    - A start-up script and a few modified applications
  19    - Configuration data
  20
  21The kernel component of Smack is implemented as a Linux
  22Security Modules (LSM) module. It requires netlabel and
  23works best with file systems that support extended attributes,
  24although xattr support is not strictly required.
  25It is safe to run a Smack kernel under a "vanilla" distribution.
  26Smack kernels use the CIPSO IP option. Some network
  27configurations are intolerant of IP options and can impede
  28access to systems that use them as Smack does.
  29
  30The startup script etc-init.d-smack should be installed
  31in /etc/init.d/smack and should be invoked early in the
  32start-up process. On Fedora rc5.d/S02smack is recommended.
  33This script ensures that certain devices have the correct
  34Smack attributes and loads the Smack configuration if
  35any is defined. This script invokes two programs that
  36ensure configuration data is properly formatted. These
  37programs are /usr/sbin/smackload and /usr/sin/smackcipso.
  38The system will run just fine without these programs,
  39but it will be difficult to set access rules properly.
  40
  41A version of "ls" that provides a "-M" option to display
  42Smack labels on long listing is available.
  43
  44A hacked version of sshd that allows network logins by users
  45with specific Smack labels is available. This version does
  46not work for scp. You must set the /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  47line:
  48   UsePrivilegeSeparation no
  49
  50The format of /etc/smack/usr is:
  51
  52   username smack
  53
  54In keeping with the intent of Smack, configuration data is
  55minimal and not strictly required. The most important
  56configuration step is mounting the smackfs pseudo filesystem.
  57
  58Add this line to /etc/fstab:
  59
  60    smackfs /smack smackfs smackfsdef=* 0 0
  61
  62and create the /smack directory for mounting.
  63
  64Smack uses extended attributes (xattrs) to store file labels.
  65The command to set a Smack label on a file is:
  66
  67    # attr -S -s SMACK64 -V "value" path
  68
  69NOTE: Smack labels are limited to 23 characters. The attr command
  70      does not enforce this restriction and can be used to set
  71      invalid Smack labels on files.
  72
  73If you don't do anything special all users will get the floor ("_")
  74label when they log in. If you do want to log in via the hacked ssh
  75at other labels use the attr command to set the smack value on the
  76home directory and it's contents.
  77
  78You can add access rules in /etc/smack/accesses. They take the form:
  79
  80    subjectlabel objectlabel access
  81
  82access is a combination of the letters rwxa which specify the
  83kind of access permitted a subject with subjectlabel on an
  84object with objectlabel. If there is no rule no access is allowed.
  85
  86A process can see the smack label it is running with by
  87reading /proc/self/attr/current. A privileged process can
  88set the process smack by writing there.
  89
  90Look for additional programs on http://schaufler-ca.com
  91
  92From the Smack Whitepaper:
  93
  94The Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel
  95
  96Casey Schaufler
  97casey@schaufler-ca.com
  98
  99Mandatory Access Control
 100
 101Computer systems employ a variety of schemes to constrain how information is
 102shared among the people and services using the machine. Some of these schemes
 103allow the program or user to decide what other programs or users are allowed
 104access to pieces of data. These schemes are called discretionary access
 105control mechanisms because the access control is specified at the discretion
 106of the user. Other schemes do not leave the decision regarding what a user or
 107program can access up to users or programs. These schemes are called mandatory
 108access control mechanisms because you don't have a choice regarding the users
 109or programs that have access to pieces of data.
 110
 111Bell & LaPadula
 112
 113From the middle of the 1980's until the turn of the century Mandatory Access
 114Control (MAC) was very closely associated with the Bell & LaPadula security
 115model, a mathematical description of the United States Department of Defense
 116policy for marking paper documents. MAC in this form enjoyed a following
 117within the Capital Beltway and Scandinavian supercomputer centers but was
 118often sited as failing to address general needs.
 119
 120Domain Type Enforcement
 121
 122Around the turn of the century Domain Type Enforcement (DTE) became popular.
 123This scheme organizes users, programs, and data into domains that are
 124protected from each other. This scheme has been widely deployed as a component
 125of popular Linux distributions. The administrative overhead required to
 126maintain this scheme and the detailed understanding of the whole system
 127necessary to provide a secure domain mapping leads to the scheme being
 128disabled or used in limited ways in the majority of cases.
 129
 130Smack
 131
 132Smack is a Mandatory Access Control mechanism designed to provide useful MAC
 133while avoiding the pitfalls of its predecessors. The limitations of Bell &
 134LaPadula are addressed by providing a scheme whereby access can be controlled
 135according to the requirements of the system and its purpose rather than those
 136imposed by an arcane government policy. The complexity of Domain Type
 137Enforcement and avoided by defining access controls in terms of the access
 138modes already in use.
 139
 140Smack Terminology
 141
 142The jargon used to talk about Smack will be familiar to those who have dealt
 143with other MAC systems and shouldn't be too difficult for the uninitiated to
 144pick up. There are four terms that are used in a specific way and that are
 145especially important:
 146
 147        Subject: A subject is an active entity on the computer system.
 148        On Smack a subject is a task, which is in turn the basic unit
 149        of execution.
 150
 151        Object: An object is a passive entity on the computer system.
 152        On Smack files of all types, IPC, and tasks can be objects.
 153
 154        Access: Any attempt by a subject to put information into or get
 155        information from an object is an access.
 156
 157        Label: Data that identifies the Mandatory Access Control
 158        characteristics of a subject or an object.
 159
 160These definitions are consistent with the traditional use in the security
 161community. There are also some terms from Linux that are likely to crop up:
 162
 163        Capability: A task that possesses a capability has permission to
 164        violate an aspect of the system security policy, as identified by
 165        the specific capability. A task that possesses one or more
 166        capabilities is a privileged task, whereas a task with no
 167        capabilities is an unprivileged task.
 168
 169        Privilege: A task that is allowed to violate the system security
 170        policy is said to have privilege. As of this writing a task can
 171        have privilege either by possessing capabilities or by having an
 172        effective user of root.
 173
 174Smack Basics
 175
 176Smack is an extension to a Linux system. It enforces additional restrictions
 177on what subjects can access which objects, based on the labels attached to
 178each of the subject and the object.
 179
 180Labels
 181
 182Smack labels are ASCII character strings, one to twenty-three characters in
 183length. Single character labels using special characters, that being anything
 184other than a letter or digit, are reserved for use by the Smack development
 185team. Smack labels are unstructured, case sensitive, and the only operation
 186ever performed on them is comparison for equality. Smack labels cannot
 187contain unprintable characters, the "/" (slash), the "\" (backslash), the "'"
 188(quote) and '"' (double-quote) characters.
 189Smack labels cannot begin with a '-', which is reserved for special options.
 190
 191There are some predefined labels:
 192
 193        _       Pronounced "floor", a single underscore character.
 194        ^       Pronounced "hat", a single circumflex character.
 195        *       Pronounced "star", a single asterisk character.
 196        ?       Pronounced "huh", a single question mark character.
 197        @       Pronounced "Internet", a single at sign character.
 198
 199Every task on a Smack system is assigned a label. System tasks, such as
 200init(8) and systems daemons, are run with the floor ("_") label. User tasks
 201are assigned labels according to the specification found in the
 202/etc/smack/user configuration file.
 203
 204Access Rules
 205
 206Smack uses the traditional access modes of Linux. These modes are read,
 207execute, write, and occasionally append. There are a few cases where the
 208access mode may not be obvious. These include:
 209
 210        Signals: A signal is a write operation from the subject task to
 211        the object task.
 212        Internet Domain IPC: Transmission of a packet is considered a
 213        write operation from the source task to the destination task.
 214
 215Smack restricts access based on the label attached to a subject and the label
 216attached to the object it is trying to access. The rules enforced are, in
 217order:
 218
 219        1. Any access requested by a task labeled "*" is denied.
 220        2. A read or execute access requested by a task labeled "^"
 221           is permitted.
 222        3. A read or execute access requested on an object labeled "_"
 223           is permitted.
 224        4. Any access requested on an object labeled "*" is permitted.
 225        5. Any access requested by a task on an object with the same
 226           label is permitted.
 227        6. Any access requested that is explicitly defined in the loaded
 228           rule set is permitted.
 229        7. Any other access is denied.
 230
 231Smack Access Rules
 232
 233With the isolation provided by Smack access separation is simple. There are
 234many interesting cases where limited access by subjects to objects with
 235different labels is desired. One example is the familiar spy model of
 236sensitivity, where a scientist working on a highly classified project would be
 237able to read documents of lower classifications and anything she writes will
 238be "born" highly classified. To accommodate such schemes Smack includes a
 239mechanism for specifying rules allowing access between labels.
 240
 241Access Rule Format
 242
 243The format of an access rule is:
 244
 245        subject-label object-label access
 246
 247Where subject-label is the Smack label of the task, object-label is the Smack
 248label of the thing being accessed, and access is a string specifying the sort
 249of access allowed. The Smack labels are limited to 23 characters. The access
 250specification is searched for letters that describe access modes:
 251
 252        a: indicates that append access should be granted.
 253        r: indicates that read access should be granted.
 254        w: indicates that write access should be granted.
 255        x: indicates that execute access should be granted.
 256
 257Uppercase values for the specification letters are allowed as well.
 258Access mode specifications can be in any order. Examples of acceptable rules
 259are:
 260
 261        TopSecret Secret  rx
 262        Secret    Unclass R
 263        Manager   Game    x
 264        User      HR      w
 265        New       Old     rRrRr
 266        Closed    Off     -
 267
 268Examples of unacceptable rules are:
 269
 270        Top Secret Secret     rx
 271        Ace        Ace        r
 272        Odd        spells     waxbeans
 273
 274Spaces are not allowed in labels. Since a subject always has access to files
 275with the same label specifying a rule for that case is pointless. Only
 276valid letters (rwxaRWXA) and the dash ('-') character are allowed in
 277access specifications. The dash is a placeholder, so "a-r" is the same
 278as "ar". A lone dash is used to specify that no access should be allowed.
 279
 280Applying Access Rules
 281
 282The developers of Linux rarely define new sorts of things, usually importing
 283schemes and concepts from other systems. Most often, the other systems are
 284variants of Unix. Unix has many endearing properties, but consistency of
 285access control models is not one of them. Smack strives to treat accesses as
 286uniformly as is sensible while keeping with the spirit of the underlying
 287mechanism.
 288
 289File system objects including files, directories, named pipes, symbolic links,
 290and devices require access permissions that closely match those used by mode
 291bit access. To open a file for reading read access is required on the file. To
 292search a directory requires execute access. Creating a file with write access
 293requires both read and write access on the containing directory. Deleting a
 294file requires read and write access to the file and to the containing
 295directory. It is possible that a user may be able to see that a file exists
 296but not any of its attributes by the circumstance of having read access to the
 297containing directory but not to the differently labeled file. This is an
 298artifact of the file name being data in the directory, not a part of the file.
 299
 300IPC objects, message queues, semaphore sets, and memory segments exist in flat
 301namespaces and access requests are only required to match the object in
 302question.
 303
 304Process objects reflect tasks on the system and the Smack label used to access
 305them is the same Smack label that the task would use for its own access
 306attempts. Sending a signal via the kill() system call is a write operation
 307from the signaler to the recipient. Debugging a process requires both reading
 308and writing. Creating a new task is an internal operation that results in two
 309tasks with identical Smack labels and requires no access checks.
 310
 311Sockets are data structures attached to processes and sending a packet from
 312one process to another requires that the sender have write access to the
 313receiver. The receiver is not required to have read access to the sender.
 314
 315Setting Access Rules
 316
 317The configuration file /etc/smack/accesses contains the rules to be set at
 318system startup. The contents are written to the special file /smack/load.
 319Rules can be written to /smack/load at any time and take effect immediately.
 320For any pair of subject and object labels there can be only one rule, with the
 321most recently specified overriding any earlier specification.
 322
 323The program smackload is provided to ensure data is formatted
 324properly when written to /smack/load. This program reads lines
 325of the form
 326
 327    subjectlabel objectlabel mode.
 328
 329Task Attribute
 330
 331The Smack label of a process can be read from /proc/<pid>/attr/current. A
 332process can read its own Smack label from /proc/self/attr/current. A
 333privileged process can change its own Smack label by writing to
 334/proc/self/attr/current but not the label of another process.
 335
 336File Attribute
 337
 338The Smack label of a filesystem object is stored as an extended attribute
 339named SMACK64 on the file. This attribute is in the security namespace. It can
 340only be changed by a process with privilege.
 341
 342Privilege
 343
 344A process with CAP_MAC_OVERRIDE is privileged.
 345
 346Smack Networking
 347
 348As mentioned before, Smack enforces access control on network protocol
 349transmissions. Every packet sent by a Smack process is tagged with its Smack
 350label. This is done by adding a CIPSO tag to the header of the IP packet. Each
 351packet received is expected to have a CIPSO tag that identifies the label and
 352if it lacks such a tag the network ambient label is assumed. Before the packet
 353is delivered a check is made to determine that a subject with the label on the
 354packet has write access to the receiving process and if that is not the case
 355the packet is dropped.
 356
 357CIPSO Configuration
 358
 359It is normally unnecessary to specify the CIPSO configuration. The default
 360values used by the system handle all internal cases. Smack will compose CIPSO
 361label values to match the Smack labels being used without administrative
 362intervention. Unlabeled packets that come into the system will be given the
 363ambient label.
 364
 365Smack requires configuration in the case where packets from a system that is
 366not smack that speaks CIPSO may be encountered. Usually this will be a Trusted
 367Solaris system, but there are other, less widely deployed systems out there.
 368CIPSO provides 3 important values, a Domain Of Interpretation (DOI), a level,
 369and a category set with each packet. The DOI is intended to identify a group
 370of systems that use compatible labeling schemes, and the DOI specified on the
 371smack system must match that of the remote system or packets will be
 372discarded. The DOI is 3 by default. The value can be read from /smack/doi and
 373can be changed by writing to /smack/doi.
 374
 375The label and category set are mapped to a Smack label as defined in
 376/etc/smack/cipso.
 377
 378A Smack/CIPSO mapping has the form:
 379
 380        smack level [category [category]*]
 381
 382Smack does not expect the level or category sets to be related in any
 383particular way and does not assume or assign accesses based on them. Some
 384examples of mappings:
 385
 386        TopSecret 7
 387        TS:A,B    7 1 2
 388        SecBDE    5 2 4 6
 389        RAFTERS   7 12 26
 390
 391The ":" and "," characters are permitted in a Smack label but have no special
 392meaning.
 393
 394The mapping of Smack labels to CIPSO values is defined by writing to
 395/smack/cipso. Again, the format of data written to this special file
 396is highly restrictive, so the program smackcipso is provided to
 397ensure the writes are done properly. This program takes mappings
 398on the standard input and sends them to /smack/cipso properly.
 399
 400In addition to explicit mappings Smack supports direct CIPSO mappings. One
 401CIPSO level is used to indicate that the category set passed in the packet is
 402in fact an encoding of the Smack label. The level used is 250 by default. The
 403value can be read from /smack/direct and changed by writing to /smack/direct.
 404
 405Socket Attributes
 406
 407There are two attributes that are associated with sockets. These attributes
 408can only be set by privileged tasks, but any task can read them for their own
 409sockets.
 410
 411        SMACK64IPIN: The Smack label of the task object. A privileged
 412        program that will enforce policy may set this to the star label.
 413
 414        SMACK64IPOUT: The Smack label transmitted with outgoing packets.
 415        A privileged program may set this to match the label of another
 416        task with which it hopes to communicate.
 417
 418Smack Netlabel Exceptions
 419
 420You will often find that your labeled application has to talk to the outside,
 421unlabeled world. To do this there's a special file /smack/netlabel where you can
 422add some exceptions in the form of :
 423@IP1       LABEL1 or
 424@IP2/MASK  LABEL2
 425
 426It means that your application will have unlabeled access to @IP1 if it has
 427write access on LABEL1, and access to the subnet @IP2/MASK if it has write
 428access on LABEL2.
 429
 430Entries in the /smack/netlabel file are matched by longest mask first, like in
 431classless IPv4 routing.
 432
 433A special label '@' and an option '-CIPSO' can be used there :
 434@      means Internet, any application with any label has access to it
 435-CIPSO means standard CIPSO networking
 436
 437If you don't know what CIPSO is and don't plan to use it, you can just do :
 438echo 127.0.0.1 -CIPSO > /smack/netlabel
 439echo 0.0.0.0/0 @      > /smack/netlabel
 440
 441If you use CIPSO on your 192.168.0.0/16 local network and need also unlabeled
 442Internet access, you can have :
 443echo 127.0.0.1      -CIPSO > /smack/netlabel
 444echo 192.168.0.0/16 -CIPSO > /smack/netlabel
 445echo 0.0.0.0/0      @      > /smack/netlabel
 446
 447
 448Writing Applications for Smack
 449
 450There are three sorts of applications that will run on a Smack system. How an
 451application interacts with Smack will determine what it will have to do to
 452work properly under Smack.
 453
 454Smack Ignorant Applications
 455
 456By far the majority of applications have no reason whatever to care about the
 457unique properties of Smack. Since invoking a program has no impact on the
 458Smack label associated with the process the only concern likely to arise is
 459whether the process has execute access to the program.
 460
 461Smack Relevant Applications
 462
 463Some programs can be improved by teaching them about Smack, but do not make
 464any security decisions themselves. The utility ls(1) is one example of such a
 465program.
 466
 467Smack Enforcing Applications
 468
 469These are special programs that not only know about Smack, but participate in
 470the enforcement of system policy. In most cases these are the programs that
 471set up user sessions. There are also network services that provide information
 472to processes running with various labels.
 473
 474File System Interfaces
 475
 476Smack maintains labels on file system objects using extended attributes. The
 477Smack label of a file, directory, or other file system object can be obtained
 478using getxattr(2).
 479
 480        len = getxattr("/", "security.SMACK64", value, sizeof (value));
 481
 482will put the Smack label of the root directory into value. A privileged
 483process can set the Smack label of a file system object with setxattr(2).
 484
 485        len = strlen("Rubble");
 486        rc = setxattr("/foo", "security.SMACK64", "Rubble", len, 0);
 487
 488will set the Smack label of /foo to "Rubble" if the program has appropriate
 489privilege.
 490
 491Socket Interfaces
 492
 493The socket attributes can be read using fgetxattr(2).
 494
 495A privileged process can set the Smack label of outgoing packets with
 496fsetxattr(2).
 497
 498        len = strlen("Rubble");
 499        rc = fsetxattr(fd, "security.SMACK64IPOUT", "Rubble", len, 0);
 500
 501will set the Smack label "Rubble" on packets going out from the socket if the
 502program has appropriate privilege.
 503
 504        rc = fsetxattr(fd, "security.SMACK64IPIN, "*", strlen("*"), 0);
 505
 506will set the Smack label "*" as the object label against which incoming
 507packets will be checked if the program has appropriate privilege.
 508
 509Administration
 510
 511Smack supports some mount options:
 512
 513        smackfsdef=label: specifies the label to give files that lack
 514        the Smack label extended attribute.
 515
 516        smackfsroot=label: specifies the label to assign the root of the
 517        file system if it lacks the Smack extended attribute.
 518
 519        smackfshat=label: specifies a label that must have read access to
 520        all labels set on the filesystem. Not yet enforced.
 521
 522        smackfsfloor=label: specifies a label to which all labels set on the
 523        filesystem must have read access. Not yet enforced.
 524
 525These mount options apply to all file system types.
 526
 527Smack auditing
 528
 529If you want Smack auditing of security events, you need to set CONFIG_AUDIT
 530in your kernel configuration.
 531By default, all denied events will be audited. You can change this behavior by
 532writing a single character to the /smack/logging file :
 5330 : no logging
 5341 : log denied (default)
 5352 : log accepted
 5363 : log denied & accepted
 537
 538Events are logged as 'key=value' pairs, for each event you at least will get
 539the subjet, the object, the rights requested, the action, the kernel function
 540that triggered the event, plus other pairs depending on the type of event
 541audited.
 542