FreeBSD/Linux Kernel Cross Reference
sys/Documentation/Smack.txt

     
     
         "Good for you, you've decided to clean the elevator!"
         - The Elevator, from Dark Star
     
     Smack is the the Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel.
     Smack is a kernel based implementation of mandatory access
     control that includes simplicity in its primary design goals.
     
    Smack is not the only Mandatory Access Control scheme
    available for Linux. Those new to Mandatory Access Control
    are encouraged to compare Smack with the other mechanisms
    available to determine which is best suited to the problem
    at hand.
    
    Smack consists of three major components:
        - The kernel
        - A start-up script and a few modified applications
        - Configuration data
    
    The kernel component of Smack is implemented as a Linux
    Security Modules (LSM) module. It requires netlabel and
    works best with file systems that support extended attributes,
    although xattr support is not strictly required.
    It is safe to run a Smack kernel under a "vanilla" distribution.
    Smack kernels use the CIPSO IP option. Some network
    configurations are intolerant of IP options and can impede
    access to systems that use them as Smack does.
    
    The startup script etc-init.d-smack should be installed
    in /etc/init.d/smack and should be invoked early in the
    start-up process. On Fedora rc5.d/S02smack is recommended.
    This script ensures that certain devices have the correct
    Smack attributes and loads the Smack configuration if
    any is defined. This script invokes two programs that
    ensure configuration data is properly formatted. These
    programs are /usr/sbin/smackload and /usr/sin/smackcipso.
    The system will run just fine without these programs,
    but it will be difficult to set access rules properly.
    
    A version of "ls" that provides a "-M" option to display
    Smack labels on long listing is available.
    
    A hacked version of sshd that allows network logins by users
    with specific Smack labels is available. This version does
    not work for scp. You must set the /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    line:
       UsePrivilegeSeparation no
    
    The format of /etc/smack/usr is:
    
       username smack
    
    In keeping with the intent of Smack, configuration data is
    minimal and not strictly required. The most important
    configuration step is mounting the smackfs pseudo filesystem.
    
    Add this line to /etc/fstab:
    
        smackfs /smack smackfs smackfsdef=* 0 0
    
    and create the /smack directory for mounting.
    
    Smack uses extended attributes (xattrs) to store file labels.
    The command to set a Smack label on a file is:
    
        # attr -S -s SMACK64 -V "value" path
    
    NOTE: Smack labels are limited to 23 characters. The attr command
          does not enforce this restriction and can be used to set
          invalid Smack labels on files.
    
    If you don't do anything special all users will get the floor ("_")
    label when they log in. If you do want to log in via the hacked ssh
    at other labels use the attr command to set the smack value on the
    home directory and its contents.
    
    You can add access rules in /etc/smack/accesses. They take the form:
    
        subjectlabel objectlabel access
    
    access is a combination of the letters rwxa which specify the
    kind of access permitted a subject with subjectlabel on an
    object with objectlabel. If there is no rule no access is allowed.
    
    A process can see the smack label it is running with by
    reading /proc/self/attr/current. A privileged process can
    set the process smack by writing there.
    
    Look for additional programs on http://schaufler-ca.com
    
    From the Smack Whitepaper:
    
    The Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel
    
    Casey Schaufler
    casey@schaufler-ca.com
    
    Mandatory Access Control
   
   Computer systems employ a variety of schemes to constrain how information is
   shared among the people and services using the machine. Some of these schemes
   allow the program or user to decide what other programs or users are allowed
   access to pieces of data. These schemes are called discretionary access
   control mechanisms because the access control is specified at the discretion
   of the user. Other schemes do not leave the decision regarding what a user or
   program can access up to users or programs. These schemes are called mandatory
   access control mechanisms because you don't have a choice regarding the users
   or programs that have access to pieces of data.
   
   Bell & LaPadula
   
   From the middle of the 1980's until the turn of the century Mandatory Access
   Control (MAC) was very closely associated with the Bell & LaPadula security
   model, a mathematical description of the United States Department of Defense
   policy for marking paper documents. MAC in this form enjoyed a following
   within the Capital Beltway and Scandinavian supercomputer centers but was
   often sited as failing to address general needs.
   
   Domain Type Enforcement
   
   Around the turn of the century Domain Type Enforcement (DTE) became popular.
   This scheme organizes users, programs, and data into domains that are
   protected from each other. This scheme has been widely deployed as a component
   of popular Linux distributions. The administrative overhead required to
   maintain this scheme and the detailed understanding of the whole system
   necessary to provide a secure domain mapping leads to the scheme being
   disabled or used in limited ways in the majority of cases.
   
   Smack
   
   Smack is a Mandatory Access Control mechanism designed to provide useful MAC
   while avoiding the pitfalls of its predecessors. The limitations of Bell &
   LaPadula are addressed by providing a scheme whereby access can be controlled
   according to the requirements of the system and its purpose rather than those
   imposed by an arcane government policy. The complexity of Domain Type
   Enforcement and avoided by defining access controls in terms of the access
   modes already in use.
   
   Smack Terminology
   
   The jargon used to talk about Smack will be familiar to those who have dealt
   with other MAC systems and shouldn't be too difficult for the uninitiated to
   pick up. There are four terms that are used in a specific way and that are
   especially important:
   
           Subject: A subject is an active entity on the computer system.
           On Smack a subject is a task, which is in turn the basic unit
           of execution.
   
           Object: An object is a passive entity on the computer system.
           On Smack files of all types, IPC, and tasks can be objects.
   
           Access: Any attempt by a subject to put information into or get
           information from an object is an access.
   
           Label: Data that identifies the Mandatory Access Control
           characteristics of a subject or an object.
   
   These definitions are consistent with the traditional use in the security
   community. There are also some terms from Linux that are likely to crop up:
   
           Capability: A task that possesses a capability has permission to
           violate an aspect of the system security policy, as identified by
           the specific capability. A task that possesses one or more
           capabilities is a privileged task, whereas a task with no
           capabilities is an unprivileged task.
   
           Privilege: A task that is allowed to violate the system security
           policy is said to have privilege. As of this writing a task can
           have privilege either by possessing capabilities or by having an
           effective user of root.
   
   Smack Basics
   
   Smack is an extension to a Linux system. It enforces additional restrictions
   on what subjects can access which objects, based on the labels attached to
   each of the subject and the object.
   
   Labels
   
   Smack labels are ASCII character strings, one to twenty-three characters in
   length. Single character labels using special characters, that being anything
   other than a letter or digit, are reserved for use by the Smack development
   team. Smack labels are unstructured, case sensitive, and the only operation
   ever performed on them is comparison for equality. Smack labels cannot
   contain unprintable characters, the "/" (slash), the "\" (backslash), the "'"
   (quote) and '"' (double-quote) characters.
   Smack labels cannot begin with a '-', which is reserved for special options.
   
   There are some predefined labels:
   
           _       Pronounced "floor", a single underscore character.
           ^       Pronounced "hat", a single circumflex character.
           *       Pronounced "star", a single asterisk character.
           ?       Pronounced "huh", a single question mark character.
           @       Pronounced "Internet", a single at sign character.
   
   Every task on a Smack system is assigned a label. System tasks, such as
   init(8) and systems daemons, are run with the floor ("_") label. User tasks
   are assigned labels according to the specification found in the
   /etc/smack/user configuration file.
   
   Access Rules
   
   Smack uses the traditional access modes of Linux. These modes are read,
   execute, write, and occasionally append. There are a few cases where the
   access mode may not be obvious. These include:
   
           Signals: A signal is a write operation from the subject task to
           the object task.
           Internet Domain IPC: Transmission of a packet is considered a
           write operation from the source task to the destination task.
   
   Smack restricts access based on the label attached to a subject and the label
   attached to the object it is trying to access. The rules enforced are, in
   order:
   
           1. Any access requested by a task labeled "*" is denied.
           2. A read or execute access requested by a task labeled "^"
              is permitted.
           3. A read or execute access requested on an object labeled "_"
              is permitted.
           4. Any access requested on an object labeled "*" is permitted.
           5. Any access requested by a task on an object with the same
              label is permitted.
           6. Any access requested that is explicitly defined in the loaded
              rule set is permitted.
           7. Any other access is denied.
   
   Smack Access Rules
   
   With the isolation provided by Smack access separation is simple. There are
   many interesting cases where limited access by subjects to objects with
   different labels is desired. One example is the familiar spy model of
   sensitivity, where a scientist working on a highly classified project would be
   able to read documents of lower classifications and anything she writes will
   be "born" highly classified. To accommodate such schemes Smack includes a
   mechanism for specifying rules allowing access between labels.
   
   Access Rule Format
   
   The format of an access rule is:
   
           subject-label object-label access
   
   Where subject-label is the Smack label of the task, object-label is the Smack
   label of the thing being accessed, and access is a string specifying the sort
   of access allowed. The Smack labels are limited to 23 characters. The access
   specification is searched for letters that describe access modes:
   
           a: indicates that append access should be granted.
           r: indicates that read access should be granted.
           w: indicates that write access should be granted.
           x: indicates that execute access should be granted.
   
   Uppercase values for the specification letters are allowed as well.
   Access mode specifications can be in any order. Examples of acceptable rules
   are:
   
           TopSecret Secret  rx
           Secret    Unclass R
           Manager   Game    x
           User      HR      w
           New       Old     rRrRr
           Closed    Off     -
   
   Examples of unacceptable rules are:
   
           Top Secret Secret     rx
           Ace        Ace        r
           Odd        spells     waxbeans
   
   Spaces are not allowed in labels. Since a subject always has access to files
   with the same label specifying a rule for that case is pointless. Only
   valid letters (rwxaRWXA) and the dash ('-') character are allowed in
   access specifications. The dash is a placeholder, so "a-r" is the same
   as "ar". A lone dash is used to specify that no access should be allowed.
   
   Applying Access Rules
   
   The developers of Linux rarely define new sorts of things, usually importing
   schemes and concepts from other systems. Most often, the other systems are
   variants of Unix. Unix has many endearing properties, but consistency of
   access control models is not one of them. Smack strives to treat accesses as
   uniformly as is sensible while keeping with the spirit of the underlying
   mechanism.
   
   File system objects including files, directories, named pipes, symbolic links,
   and devices require access permissions that closely match those used by mode
   bit access. To open a file for reading read access is required on the file. To
   search a directory requires execute access. Creating a file with write access
   requires both read and write access on the containing directory. Deleting a
   file requires read and write access to the file and to the containing
   directory. It is possible that a user may be able to see that a file exists
   but not any of its attributes by the circumstance of having read access to the
   containing directory but not to the differently labeled file. This is an
   artifact of the file name being data in the directory, not a part of the file.
   
   IPC objects, message queues, semaphore sets, and memory segments exist in flat
   namespaces and access requests are only required to match the object in
   question.
   
   Process objects reflect tasks on the system and the Smack label used to access
   them is the same Smack label that the task would use for its own access
   attempts. Sending a signal via the kill() system call is a write operation
   from the signaler to the recipient. Debugging a process requires both reading
   and writing. Creating a new task is an internal operation that results in two
   tasks with identical Smack labels and requires no access checks.
   
   Sockets are data structures attached to processes and sending a packet from
   one process to another requires that the sender have write access to the
   receiver. The receiver is not required to have read access to the sender.
   
   Setting Access Rules
   
   The configuration file /etc/smack/accesses contains the rules to be set at
   system startup. The contents are written to the special file /smack/load.
   Rules can be written to /smack/load at any time and take effect immediately.
   For any pair of subject and object labels there can be only one rule, with the
   most recently specified overriding any earlier specification.
   
   The program smackload is provided to ensure data is formatted
   properly when written to /smack/load. This program reads lines
   of the form
   
       subjectlabel objectlabel mode.
   
   Task Attribute
   
   The Smack label of a process can be read from /proc/<pid>/attr/current. A
   process can read its own Smack label from /proc/self/attr/current. A
   privileged process can change its own Smack label by writing to
   /proc/self/attr/current but not the label of another process.
   
   File Attribute
   
   The Smack label of a filesystem object is stored as an extended attribute
   named SMACK64 on the file. This attribute is in the security namespace. It can
   only be changed by a process with privilege.
   
   Privilege
   
   A process with CAP_MAC_OVERRIDE is privileged.
   
   Smack Networking
   
   As mentioned before, Smack enforces access control on network protocol
   transmissions. Every packet sent by a Smack process is tagged with its Smack
   label. This is done by adding a CIPSO tag to the header of the IP packet. Each
   packet received is expected to have a CIPSO tag that identifies the label and
   if it lacks such a tag the network ambient label is assumed. Before the packet
   is delivered a check is made to determine that a subject with the label on the
   packet has write access to the receiving process and if that is not the case
   the packet is dropped.
   
   CIPSO Configuration
   
   It is normally unnecessary to specify the CIPSO configuration. The default
   values used by the system handle all internal cases. Smack will compose CIPSO
   label values to match the Smack labels being used without administrative
   intervention. Unlabeled packets that come into the system will be given the
   ambient label.
   
   Smack requires configuration in the case where packets from a system that is
   not smack that speaks CIPSO may be encountered. Usually this will be a Trusted
   Solaris system, but there are other, less widely deployed systems out there.
   CIPSO provides 3 important values, a Domain Of Interpretation (DOI), a level,
   and a category set with each packet. The DOI is intended to identify a group
   of systems that use compatible labeling schemes, and the DOI specified on the
   smack system must match that of the remote system or packets will be
   discarded. The DOI is 3 by default. The value can be read from /smack/doi and
   can be changed by writing to /smack/doi.
   
   The label and category set are mapped to a Smack label as defined in
   /etc/smack/cipso.
   
   A Smack/CIPSO mapping has the form:
   
           smack level [category [category]*]
   
   Smack does not expect the level or category sets to be related in any
   particular way and does not assume or assign accesses based on them. Some
   examples of mappings:
   
           TopSecret 7
           TS:A,B    7 1 2
           SecBDE    5 2 4 6
           RAFTERS   7 12 26
   
   The ":" and "," characters are permitted in a Smack label but have no special
   meaning.
   
   The mapping of Smack labels to CIPSO values is defined by writing to
   /smack/cipso. Again, the format of data written to this special file
   is highly restrictive, so the program smackcipso is provided to
   ensure the writes are done properly. This program takes mappings
   on the standard input and sends them to /smack/cipso properly.
   
   In addition to explicit mappings Smack supports direct CIPSO mappings. One
   CIPSO level is used to indicate that the category set passed in the packet is
   in fact an encoding of the Smack label. The level used is 250 by default. The
   value can be read from /smack/direct and changed by writing to /smack/direct.
   
   Socket Attributes
   
   There are two attributes that are associated with sockets. These attributes
   can only be set by privileged tasks, but any task can read them for their own
   sockets.
   
           SMACK64IPIN: The Smack label of the task object. A privileged
           program that will enforce policy may set this to the star label.
   
           SMACK64IPOUT: The Smack label transmitted with outgoing packets.
           A privileged program may set this to match the label of another
           task with which it hopes to communicate.
   
   Smack Netlabel Exceptions
   
   You will often find that your labeled application has to talk to the outside,
   unlabeled world. To do this there's a special file /smack/netlabel where you can
   add some exceptions in the form of :
   @IP1       LABEL1 or
   @IP2/MASK  LABEL2
   
   It means that your application will have unlabeled access to @IP1 if it has
   write access on LABEL1, and access to the subnet @IP2/MASK if it has write
   access on LABEL2.
   
   Entries in the /smack/netlabel file are matched by longest mask first, like in
   classless IPv4 routing.
   
   A special label '@' and an option '-CIPSO' can be used there :
   @      means Internet, any application with any label has access to it
   -CIPSO means standard CIPSO networking
   
   If you don't know what CIPSO is and don't plan to use it, you can just do :
   echo 127.0.0.1 -CIPSO > /smack/netlabel
   echo 0.0.0.0/0 @      > /smack/netlabel
   
   If you use CIPSO on your 192.168.0.0/16 local network and need also unlabeled
   Internet access, you can have :
   echo 127.0.0.1      -CIPSO > /smack/netlabel
   echo 192.168.0.0/16 -CIPSO > /smack/netlabel
   echo 0.0.0.0/0      @      > /smack/netlabel
   
   
   Writing Applications for Smack
   
   There are three sorts of applications that will run on a Smack system. How an
   application interacts with Smack will determine what it will have to do to
   work properly under Smack.
   
   Smack Ignorant Applications
   
   By far the majority of applications have no reason whatever to care about the
   unique properties of Smack. Since invoking a program has no impact on the
   Smack label associated with the process the only concern likely to arise is
   whether the process has execute access to the program.
   
   Smack Relevant Applications
   
   Some programs can be improved by teaching them about Smack, but do not make
   any security decisions themselves. The utility ls(1) is one example of such a
   program.
   
   Smack Enforcing Applications
   
   These are special programs that not only know about Smack, but participate in
   the enforcement of system policy. In most cases these are the programs that
   set up user sessions. There are also network services that provide information
   to processes running with various labels.
   
   File System Interfaces
   
   Smack maintains labels on file system objects using extended attributes. The
   Smack label of a file, directory, or other file system object can be obtained
   using getxattr(2).
   
           len = getxattr("/", "security.SMACK64", value, sizeof (value));
   
   will put the Smack label of the root directory into value. A privileged
   process can set the Smack label of a file system object with setxattr(2).
   
           len = strlen("Rubble");
           rc = setxattr("/foo", "security.SMACK64", "Rubble", len, 0);
   
   will set the Smack label of /foo to "Rubble" if the program has appropriate
   privilege.
   
   Socket Interfaces
   
   The socket attributes can be read using fgetxattr(2).
   
   A privileged process can set the Smack label of outgoing packets with
   fsetxattr(2).
   
           len = strlen("Rubble");
           rc = fsetxattr(fd, "security.SMACK64IPOUT", "Rubble", len, 0);
   
   will set the Smack label "Rubble" on packets going out from the socket if the
   program has appropriate privilege.
   
           rc = fsetxattr(fd, "security.SMACK64IPIN, "*", strlen("*"), 0);
   
   will set the Smack label "*" as the object label against which incoming
   packets will be checked if the program has appropriate privilege.
   
   Administration
   
   Smack supports some mount options:
   
           smackfsdef=label: specifies the label to give files that lack
           the Smack label extended attribute.
   
           smackfsroot=label: specifies the label to assign the root of the
           file system if it lacks the Smack extended attribute.
   
           smackfshat=label: specifies a label that must have read access to
           all labels set on the filesystem. Not yet enforced.
   
           smackfsfloor=label: specifies a label to which all labels set on the
           filesystem must have read access. Not yet enforced.
   
   These mount options apply to all file system types.
   
   Smack auditing
   
   If you want Smack auditing of security events, you need to set CONFIG_AUDIT
   in your kernel configuration.
   By default, all denied events will be audited. You can change this behavior by
   writing a single character to the /smack/logging file :
   0 : no logging
   1 : log denied (default)
   2 : log accepted
   3 : log denied & accepted
   
   Events are logged as 'key=value' pairs, for each event you at least will get
   the subjet, the object, the rights requested, the action, the kernel function
   that triggered the event, plus other pairs depending on the type of event
   audited.

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