linux-kernel - Re: [RFC][PATCH -v2] Smack: Integrate with Audit

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Message-Id: <1205336897.23866.296.camel@moss-spartans.epoch.ncsc.mil>
Date:	Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:48:17 -0400
From:	Stephen Smalley <sds@...ho.nsa.gov>
To:	casey@...aufler-ca.com
Cc:	"Ahmed S. Darwish" <darwish.07@...il.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	James Morris <jmorris@...ei.org>,
	Paul Moore <paul.moore@...com>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	LSM-ML <linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org>,
	Audit-ML <linux-audit@...hat.com>,
	Steve Grubb <sgrubb@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH -v2] Smack: Integrate with Audit


On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 08:40 -0700, Casey Schaufler wrote:
> --- Stephen Smalley <sds@...ho.nsa.gov> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 04:44 +0200, Ahmed S. Darwish wrote:
> > > Hi!,
> > > 
> > > Setup the new Audit hooks for Smack. The AUDIT_SUBJ_USER and 
> > > AUDIT_OBJ_USER SELinux flags are recycled to avoid `auditd' 
> > > userspace modifications. Smack only needs auditing on 
> > > a subject/object bases, so those flags were enough.
> > 
> > Only question I have is whether audit folks are ok with reuse of the
> > flags in this manner, and whether the _USER flag is best suited for this
> > purpose if you are going to reuse an existing flag (since Smack label
> > seems more like a SELinux type than a SELinux user).
> 
> To-mate-o toe-maht-o.
> 
> There really doesn't seem to be any real reason to create a new
> flag just because the granularity is different. The choice between
> _USER and _TYPE (and _ROLE for that matter) is arbitrary from a
> functional point of view. I say that since Smack has users, but
> not types or roles, _USER makes the most sense.

Perhaps I misunderstand, but Smack labels don't represent users (i.e.
user identity) in any way, so it seemed like a mismatch to use the _USER
flag there.  Whereas types in SELinux bear some similarity to Smack
labels - simple unstructured names whose meaning is only defined by the
policy rules.

Regardless, it seems like the audit maintainers ought to weigh in on the
matter.

> > Certainly will confuse matters if a user has audit filters on SELinux
> > users in their /etc/audit/audit.rules and then boots a kernel with Smack
> > enabled.
> 
> Somehow I doubt that will be their biggest concern.

-- 
Stephen Smalley
National Security Agency

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