1selinux(8)            SELinux Command Line documentation            selinux(8)
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NAME

6       SELinux - NSA Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux)
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DESCRIPTION

9       NSA  Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is an implementation of a flexi‐
10       ble mandatory access control architecture in the Linux  operating  sys‐
11       tem.   The  SELinux  architecture  provides  general  support  for  the
12       enforcement of many kinds of mandatory access control policies, includ‐
13       ing  those  based  on  the  concepts  of Type Enforcement®, Role- Based
14       Access Control, and Multi-Level Security.  Background  information  and
15       technical    documentation    about    SELinux    can   be   found   at
16       http://www.nsa.gov/research/selinux.
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18       The /etc/selinux/config configuration file controls whether SELinux  is
19       enabled  or  disabled, and if enabled, whether SELinux operates in per‐
20       missive mode or enforcing mode.  The SELINUX variable may be set to any
21       one  of  disabled,  permissive,  or  enforcing  to  select one of these
22       options.  The disabled option completely disables  the  SELinux  kernel
23       and  application  code,  leaving the system running without any SELinux
24       protection.  The permissive option enables the SELinux code, but causes
25       it  to  operate in a mode where accesses that would be denied by policy
26       are permitted but audited.  The enforcing option  enables  the  SELinux
27       code  and causes it to enforce access denials as well as auditing them.
28       Permissive mode may yield a different set  of  denials  than  enforcing
29       mode,  both  because enforcing mode will prevent an operation from pro‐
30       ceeding past the first denial and because some  application  code  will
31       fall back to a less privileged mode of operation if denied access.
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33       The /etc/selinux/config configuration file also controls what policy is
34       active on the system.  SELinux  allows  for  multiple  policies  to  be
35       installed on the system, but only one policy may be active at any given
36       time.  At present, multiple kinds of SELinux  policy  exist:  targeted,
37       mls  for  example.   The  targeted policy is designed as a policy where
38       most user processes operate without  restrictions,  and  only  specific
39       services are placed into distinct security domains that are confined by
40       the policy.  For example, the user would run in a completely unconfined
41       domain  while the named daemon or apache daemon would run in a specific
42       domain tailored to its operation.  The MLS (Multi-Level Security)  pol‐
43       icy  is  designed  as a policy where all processes are partitioned into
44       fine-grained security domains and confined by policy.   MLS  also  sup‐
45       ports  the  Bell  And LaPadula model, where processes are not only con‐
46       fined by the type but also the level of the data.
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48       You can define which policy you will run  by  setting  the  SELINUXTYPE
49       environment  variable  within /etc/selinux/config.  You must reboot and
50       possibly relabel if you change the policy type to have it  take  effect
51       on  the  system.   The corresponding policy configuration for each such
52       policy must be installed in  the  /etc/selinux/{SELINUXTYPE}/  directo‐
53       ries.
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55       A given SELinux policy can be customized further based on a set of com‐
56       pile-time tunable  options  and  a  set  of  runtime  policy  booleans.
57       system-config-selinux  allows  customization of these booleans and tun‐
58       ables.
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60       Many domains that are protected by SELinux  also  include  SELinux  man
61       pages explaining how to customize their policy.
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FILE LABELING

64       All files, directories, devices ... have a security context/label asso‐
65       ciated with them.  These context are stored in the extended  attributes
66       of  the  file  system.  Problems with SELinux often arise from the file
67       system being mislabeled. This can be caused by booting the machine with
68       a  non  SELinux kernel.  If you see an error message containing file_t,
69       that is usually a good indicator that you have a serious  problem  with
70       file system labeling.
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72       The  best  way  to  relabel  the file system is to create the flag file
73       /.autorelabel and reboot.  system-config-selinux, also has  this  capa‐
74       bility.   The restorecon/fixfiles commands are also available for rela‐
75       beling files.
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AUTHOR

78       This manual page was written by Dan Walsh <dwalsh@redhat.com>.
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FILES

81       /etc/selinux/config
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SEE ALSO

84       booleans(8), setsebool(8), sepolicy(8), system-config-selinux(8),
85       togglesebool(8), fixfiles(8), restorecon(8), setfiles(8), semanage(8),
86       sepolicy(8), seinfo(8), sesearch(8)
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88       Every confined service on the system has a man page in the following
89       format:
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91       <servicename>_selinux(8)
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93       For example, httpd has the httpd_selinux(8) man page.
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95       man -k selinux
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97       Will list all SELinux man pages.
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101dwalsh@redhat.com                 29 Apr 2005                       selinux(8)
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