1sealert(8) sealert(8)
2
6 sealert - setroubleshoot client tool
7
10 sealert [-b] [-f local_id] [-h] [-s] [-S] [-l id] [-a file] [-u] [-p]
11 [-P plugin_name]
12
15 This manual page describes the sealert program.
16 sealert is the user interface component (either GUI or command line) to
18 the setroubleshoot system. setroubleshoot is used to diagnose SELinux
19 denials and attempts to provide user friendly explanations for a
20 SELinux denial (e.g. AVC) and recommendations for how one might adjust
21 the system to prevent the denial in the future.
22 In a standard configuration setroubleshoot is composed of two compo‐
24 nents, setroubleshootd and sealert.
25 setroubleshootd is a system daemon which runs with root privileges and
27 listens for audit events emitted from the kernel related to SELinux.
28 The audit daemon must be running. The audit daemon sends a dbus mes‐
29 sage to the setroubleshootd daemon when the system gets an SELinux AVC
30 denial. The setroubleshootd daemon then runs a series of analysis
31 plugins which examines the audit data related to the AVC. It records
32 the results of the analysis and signals any clients which have attached
33 to the setroubleshootd daemon that a new alert has been seen.
34 sealert can be run in either a GUI mode or a command line mode. In both
36 instances sealert run as a user process with the privileges associated
37 with the user. In GUI mode it attaches to a setroubleshootd server in‐
38 stance and listens for notifications of new alerts. When a new alert
39 arrives it alerts the desktop user via a notification in the status
40 icon area. The user may then click on the alert notification which
41 will open an alert browser. In addition to the current alert sealert
42 communicates with the setroubleshootd daemon to access all prior alerts
43 stored in the setroubleshoot database.
44 The user may elect to tag any given alert as "ignore" in the browser
46 which prevents any future notification for the given alert. This is
47 useful when a user is already aware of a reoccurring problem.
48 sealert may also be run in command line mode. The two most useful com‐
50 mand line options are -l to "lookup" an alert ID and -a to "analyze" a
51 log file. When setroubleshootd generates a new alert it assigns it a
52 local ID and writes this as a syslog message. The -l lookup option may
53 then be used to retrieve the alert from the setroubleshootd alert data‐
54 base and write it to stdout. This is most useful when setroubleshootd
55 is being run on a headless system without the GUI desktop alert facil‐
56 ity. The -a analyze option is equivalent to the "Scan Logfile" command
57 in the browser. The log file is scanned for audit messages, analysis is
58 performed, alerts generated, and then written to stdout.
59
62 You may ask sealert to parse a file accumulating all the audit messages
63 it finds in that file. As each audit event is recognized it is pre‐
64 sented for analysis which may generate an alert report if the analysis
65 was successful. If the same type of event is seen multiple times re‐
66 sulting in the same report the results are coalesced into a single re‐
67 port. The report count field will indicate the number of times the tool
68 thought it saw the same issue. The report will also include a list of
69 every line number on which it found an audit record which contributed
70 to the coalesced report. This will allow you to coordinate the contents
71 of the file with the analysis results if need be.
72 Log file scanning may be initiated from the sealert browser via the
74 File::ScanLogFile menu or from the command line via 'sealert -a file‐
75 name'. Please note that sealert runs as a user level process with the
76 permissions of the user running it. Many system log files are readable
77 by root only. To work around this if you have root access one can copy
78 the file as root to a temporary file and change its permissions. This
79 is a good solution when scanning via the GUI as a normal user. Or you
80 might consider su'ing to root and run the analysis via the command line
81 (e.g. sealert -a filename).
82 The audit records in the log file must be valid syntactically correct
84 audit messages or the parser will ignore them.
85
88 -b --browser
89 Launch the browser
90 -f --fix
92 Execute the fix command for the avc with the given uuid and
93 plugin, requires --plugin option.
94 -h --help
96 Show this message
97 -s --service
99 Start sealert service, Usually used by dbus.
100 -S --noservice
102 Start sealert without dbus service as stand alone app
103 -l --lookupid id
105 Lookup alert by id, if id is wildcard * then return all alerts
106 -a --analyze file
108 Scan a log file, analyze its AVCs
109 -u --user
111 logon as user
112 -p --password
114 set user password
115 -P --plugin
117 Set plugin name associated with the --fix option
118
121 This man page was written by John Dennis <jdennis@redhat.com> and Dan
122 Walsh <dwalsh@redhat.com>.
123
126 selinux(8),
127 20061121 sealert(8)