1getcon(3) SELinux API documentation getcon(3)
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6 getcon, getprevcon, getpidcon - get SELinux security context of a
7 process
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9 freecon, freeconary - free memory associated with SELinux security con‐
10 texts
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12 getpeercon - get security context of a peer socket
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14 setcon - set current security context of a process
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17 #include <selinux/selinux.h>
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19 int getcon(char **context);
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21 int getcon_raw(char **context);
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23 int getprevcon(char **context);
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25 int getprevcon_raw(char **context);
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27 int getpidcon(pid_t pid, char **context);
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29 int getpidcon_raw(pid_t pid, char **context);
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31 int getpeercon(int fd, char **context);
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33 int getpeercon_raw(int fd, char **context);
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35 void freecon(char *con);
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37 void freeconary(char **con);
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39 int setcon(char *context);
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41 int setcon_raw(char *context);
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44 getcon() retrieves the context of the current process, which must be
45 free'd with freecon.
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47 getprevcon() same as getcon but gets the context before the last exec.
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49 getpidcon() returns the process context for the specified PID.
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51 getpeercon() retrieves context of peer socket, and set *context to
52 refer to it, which must be free'd with freecon().
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54 freecon() frees the memory allocated for a security context.
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56 freeconary() frees the memory allocated for a context array.
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58 If con is NULL, no operation is performed.
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60 setcon() sets the current security context of the process to a new
61 value. Note that use of this function requires that the entire appli‐
62 cation be trusted to maintain any desired separation between the old
63 and new security contexts, unlike exec-based transitions performed via
64 setexeccon(3). When possible, decompose your application and use
65 setexeccon(3) and execve(3) instead.
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67 Since access to file descriptors is revalidated upon use by SELinux,
68 the new context must be explicitly authorized in the policy to use the
69 descriptors opened by the old context if that is desired. Otherwise,
70 attempts by the process to use any existing descriptors (including
71 stdin, stdout, and stderr) after performing the setcon() will fail.
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73 A multi-threaded application can perform a setcon() prior to creating
74 any child threads, in which case all of the child threads will inherit
75 the new context. However, prior to Linux 2.6.28, setcon() would fail
76 if there are any other threads running in the same process since this
77 would yield an inconsistency among the security contexts of threads
78 sharing the same memory space. Since Linux 2.6.28, setcon() is permit‐
79 ted for threads within a multi-threaded process if the new security
80 context is bounded by the old security context, where the bounded rela‐
81 tion is defined through typebounds statements in the policy and guaran‐
82 tees that the new security context has a subset of the permissions of
83 the old security context.
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85 If the process was being ptraced at the time of the setcon() operation,
86 ptrace permission will be revalidated against the new context and the
87 setcon() will fail if it is not allowed by policy.
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89 getcon_raw(), getprevcon_raw(), getpidcon_raw(), getpeercon_raw() and
90 setcon_raw() behave identically to their non-raw counterparts but do
91 not perform context translation.
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94 On error -1 is returned. On success 0 is returned.
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97 selinux(8), setexeccon(3)
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101russell@coker.com.au 21 December 2011 getcon(3)