Patent Application
20130332981
Embodiments of the present invention relate in general to operating systems and in particular to generating a Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) security policy based on file name translations.
SELinux is a security operation system initiative by the US National Security Agency which attempts to improve security and prevent, for example, malicious software to obtain control of important system resources. SELinux typically provides for an object (e.g., a file system object such as a directory or a file) to be assigned a security context or a label which encapsulates the security attributes associated with the object.
SELinux uses security control mechanisms that can provide the accesses that a program needs to perform its task. To implement such security controls, SELinux typically provides a security label by associating access control attributes of the form user:role:type to objects.
Security labels may be assigned to the objects in several ways. For example, a primary method for assigning a security label to an object is for the object to adopt the label of the parent directory. A second method for assigning a label to an object can be through the use of a transition rule or policy. In this case, an example of a transition rule or policy may be: if a process which creates an object is called “A”, and if the directory in which the object is created is called “B”, then the object that is created is labeled “C”. A third method for assigning a label to an object can be through the use of a rule assignment within a process, such that, for example, if a certain process creates an object, then the object is labeled “D”.
In SELinux, a newly created object may need to have a label that is different from the label of the parent directory or the label that is applied by the transition rule. For example, an administrator may go into the /root directory and create the .ssh directory. The directory may get created with the label admin_home_t, however, a policy may require the directory to be labeled ssh_home_t. If the label is not corrected, when the user tries to use the content of the .ssh directory, a process may fail to read the content of the directory because the content of the .ssh directory is mislabeled (e.g., the process “sshd” is not permitted to read files labeled admin_home_t.)
In another example, a user may create a public_html directory in his or her home directory. The default label for content in the home directory may be user_home_t, however, the public_html directory may be required to be labeled http_user_content_t, otherwise an apache process (e.g., httpd_t) will not be permitted to read the content. A system administrator usually should manually correct such mislabeling, which is inconvenient and time consuming and creates a possibility of human errors.
Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, and can be more fully understood with reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the figures in which:
A method and system are described for providing an SELinux system implementing extended security policy models for enforcement.
In one embodiment, a policy rule for creating a security label for a newly created object is defined using the label of the process, the class of the newly created object, the label of the parent object, and the name of the new object. As used herein, the term “object” may be referred to as, but not limited to, for example, a file, a directory, a sub-directory, a memory location, etc.
In one embodiment, the policy rule may be compiled by a policy language compiler and included in an operating system package which may be distributed and installed on computer devices. In one embodiment, the policy rule may be a file transition rule of an SELinux policy. In one embodiment, an SELinux policy rule may define an SELinux label for a newly created object.
During execution, the kernel may identify a request of a process to create a new object in the file system. The kernel may identify a policy rule applicable to the new object by using a label of the process, a label of the parent object pertaining to the new object, a class of the new object, and the name of the new object. In one embodiment, the parent object pertaining to the new object is a file directory.
After identifying the policy rule, the kernel may create a security label for the new object using the identified policy rule and associate the new object with the created security label. For security purposes, the kernel may access a security module, which may include a security server and an access control database which contains information about the created security label. The security module may determine if a user, a program, or a process can have permission to access an object.
In the following description, numerous details are set forth. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.
The server may 101 be a personal computer (PC), a server computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a laptop computer, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. In another embodiment, the policy creation tool 104 and the operating system package provider 106 may reside on different servers.
The server 101 may be communicatively coupled to computing devices 116 (e.g., computing devices 1-N) over a network 102. The network 102 may be, for example, a private network (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), intranet, etc.), a corporate network (e.g., a private network for an organization such as a corporation), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet).
The computing devices 116 may include computing devices that have a wide range of processing capabilities such as PCs, PDAs, smart phones, laptop computers, tablets, netbooks, etc, and/or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. The computing devices 116 may access the operating system package provider 106 over the network 102. In one embodiment, the computing devices 116 may be mobile computing systems including but not limited to, laptops, smart phones, PDAs, tablet computers, netbook computers, etc. In one embodiment, the operating system package provider 106 may distribute to each of computing devices 116 an operating system package which may include an operating system and a set of compiled policy rules. In one embodiment, the distributed operating system package may include one or more compiled policy rules that are created by the policy creation tool 104. As will be discussed in more detail below, a policy rule for creating a security label for a new object may specify that the security label for the new object should be based on the label of a process creating the new object, the class of the new object, the label of the parent object of the new object, and the name of the new object.
In one embodiment, the computing devices 116 may include processes 108 (e.g., processes 1-N). A process may be an executable program and may consist of the executing program code, a set of resources such as open files, internal kernel data, an address space, one or more threads of execution, and a data section containing global variables. Each process may have process descriptors associated with it which may hold the information used to keep track of a process in memory. The various pieces of information stored about a process may include, but are not limited to, process identifier (PID), state, parent process, children, siblings, processor registers, list of open files and address space information.
In one embodiment, each of the computing devices 116 may include an operating system 112. Each operating system 112 may use mandatory access control (MAC) mechanisms. Mandatory access control mechanisms may provide a requestor (e.g., a process, an application and/or a user) with the minimum amount of privileges required to complete a task. For example, a requestor using and/or operating in the operating system 112 may attempt to perform an operation on an object which the operating system 112 has access to. The operating system 112 may provide the requestor with the least amount of access/privileges possible to perform the operation. In another embodiment, the mandatory access control mechanisms may prevent requestors from performing unauthorized operations on objects and/or gaining unauthorized access to objects. For example, the mandatory access control mechanism may prevent a process from overwriting data in another process's memory location. In another example, the mandatory access control mechanisms may prevent a user from installing an unauthorized program or accessing system settings or files.
In one embodiment, requestors and objects may each have one or more security attributes. When a requestor attempts to access and/or operate on an object, the mandatory access control mechanisms of the operating system 112 may examine the security attributes of the requestor and the object the requestor is attempting to access. The mandatory access control mechanisms may also examine one or more user roles or contexts to determine whether the requestor is allowed to access the object and allow/deny a requestor access to an object based on the role or context. For example, an “administrator role” may provide a user with full or partial access to a computing system, while a “guest role” may only provide a user with less privileged access to files and settings of a computing system. In another embodiment, the operations which may be controlled by the mandatory access control mechanisms and the contexts/roles may include, but are not limited to accessing files and directories, accessing hardware, accessing ports, accessing objects, accessing memory and memory locations, installing applications, and executing applications, processes, and/or threads.
In one embodiment, the mandatory access control mechanisms may be part of the operating system 112 (e.g., part of the kernel of the operating system 112). In another embodiment, the mandatory access control mechanisms may include one or more software modules and/or applications which work in conjunction with the operating system 112 to allow/deny requestors access to objects. Examples of operating systems which may use mandatory access control mechanisms include, but are not limited to, SELinux, Windows 7®, Windows Vista®, Mac OS®, FreeBSD®, and Trusted Solaris®.
In one embodiment, the operating system 112 includes a labeling subsystem 110 for extending security policies (e.g., SELinux security policies) and for providing further refinement of the mandatory access control mechanisms. Alternatively, the labeling subsystem 110 may not be part of the operating system 112 but is instead a dedicated application or part of another application running on top of the operating system 112. In one embodiment, the operating system 112 may identify a request of a process 108 to create a new object to reside within the file system 114. In one embodiment, the file system 114 may be included within the computing devices 116. A file system may be a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. For example, file system 114 may use a data storage device such as a flash drive, a hard disk or CD-ROM and may involve maintaining the physical location of the files.
In one embodiment, the labeling subsystem 110 may be configured to identify a policy rule which may be applicable to the newly created object in the file system 114. The labeling subsystem 110 may create a label for the new object by using an applicable policy rule, and associate the new object with the created label. As will be discussed in more detail below, the labeling subsystem 110 may create a label for the new object based on the label of a process creating the new object, the class of the new object, the label of the parent object of the new object, and the name of the new object. Embodiments of the labeling subsystem 110 are discussed in further detail below in conjunction with
The computing device 116 may subsequently receive a request from a user to access the new object. In response to the request, the operating system 112 may send to a security server (not shown) an access control decision request, based on the created label that is associated with the new object. The security server may determine whether or not access to the new object should be allowed or denied based on the label of the new object. The computing device 116 may then receive, from the security server, the decision to allow or deny the user access to the new object, and execute the received decision from the security server.
In one embodiment, the user interface 204 may be used by a user or an administrator to input information for creating a new policy rule for the operating system 112. For example, the user or administrator may input, via the user interface 204, policy rules for creating labels for new objects based on the label of a process which will be creating a new object, the class of the new object to be created by the process, the label of the parent pertaining to the new object, and the name of the new object. The class of the new object may be, for example, a file, a directory, a character file (e.g., chr_file) or a block file (e.g., blk_file). Exemplary policy rules are discussed in further detail below with reference to
In one embodiment, the policy language compiler 208 is used to compile the new policy rule for the operating system 112, based on the information that that was provided through the user interface 204 by the user or administrator. The compiled new policy rule may be stored in the policy data store 212. The operating system package provider 106 may include compiled system rules in an operating system package and distribute the resulting operating system package to computing devices 116.
The file system object creator 304 may be configured to identify a request from, for example, a process 108, to create a new object. In one embodiment, the new object is created to reside in the file system 114. The request may specify the label of the process which creates the new object, the label of the parent object pertaining to the new object, the class of the new object and the name of the new object.
The policy rule selector 308 may identify a policy rule which may reside in the policy data store 324. The policy rule selector 308 may identify and select a policy rule that is applicable to the new object that is created by a process 108. The policy rule selector 308 may use the following information for identifying and selecting of the applicable policy rule: 1) the label of the process 108 that creates the new object; 2) the label of the parent object pertaining to the new object; 3) the class of the new object; and 4) the name of the new object.
In one embodiment, the name of the new object may be the base file name and not the path name. Alternatively, the name of the new object may be the entire path name of the new object, including the base name of the new object. Yet alternatively, the name of the new object may be a portion of the path name of the new object.
In one embodiment, the label creator 312 uses the policy rule that is applicable to the new object, which was identified and selected by the policy rule selector 308, to create a label for the new object. The created label for the new object may be stored in the label data store 328. The operating system 112 may associate the new object with the created label.
Referring to
Subsequently, at block 407, when a user or an administrator desires to define a policy rule for creating a label for a new object using the label of the process, the class of the new object, the label of the parent object and the name of the new object, the policy creation tool 104 asks to provide the above characteristics and the label of the new object, and creates a new policy rule for creating the label for the new object based on the provided input.
At block 410, the policy creation tool 104 determines whether an object label policy rule that includes the above four characteristics (or at least the label of the process 108, the label of the parent object pertaining to the new object, and the class of the new object) already exists in the set of policy rules. If the policy creation tool 104 determines that such a policy rule already exists, the policy creation tool 104 replaces the existing policy rule with the new policy rule (block 412) and proceeds to block 420.
If the policy creation tool 104 determines that such a policy rule does not exist, then the policy creation tool 104 adds this policy rule to the set of policy rules (block 415). As discussed above, the label for the new object may be based on the four characteristics which relate to the new object, as noted above.
For purposes of illustration and not limitation, the following are examples of a policy rule for creating a label for a new object using the name of the new object. For example, a policy rule may specify that if the unconfined_t user process creates the “.ssh” directory in a directory labelled admin_home_t, then the new directory should be labeled “ssh_home_t.” In particular, this policy rule may be expressed as follows:
ssh_home_t.filetrans_pattern(unconfined_t, admin_home_t, dir, ssh_home_t, “.ssh”)
In another example, if the staff_t user process creates a directory named public_html in a directory labeled user_home_dir_t, then the new directory should be labeled as “http_user_content_t.” In particular, this policy rule may be expressed as follows:
http_user_content_t. filetrans_pattern(staff_t, user_home_dir_t, dir, http_user_content_t, “public_html”)
At block 420, the policy language compiler 208 may compile an updated set of policy rules using the policy rule for the new object. At block 425, the operating system package provider 106 may create an operating system package which includes the compiled set of policy rules. At block 430, the operating system package provider 106 may distribute the operating system package, which includes the compiled set of policy rules, to computing devices 116 via, for example, the network 102, and the method 400 ends.
Referring to
At block 520, the labeling subsystem finds a specific policy rule for the above parameters in, for example, the policy data store 324. At block 525, the label creator 312 may create a label for the new object using the policy rule. At block 530, the operating system 112 may associate the new object with the label that was created at block 525, and the method 500 ends.
The exemplary computer system 600 includes a processor 602, a main memory 604 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), etc.), a static memory 606 (e.g., flash memory, static random access memory (SRAM), etc.), and a secondary memory 616 (e.g., a data storage device), which communicate with each other via a bus 630.
The processor 602 represents one or more general-purpose processing devices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. More particularly, the processor 602 may be a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, processor implementing other instruction sets, or processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. The processor 602 may also be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor, or the like. The processor 602 is configured to execute authentication tool 300 for performing the operations and steps discussed herein.
The computer system 600 may further include a network interface device 622. The network interface device may be in communication with a network 621. The computer system 600 also may include a video display unit 610 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), a touch screen, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 614 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device 620 (e.g., a speaker).
The secondary memory 616 may include a computer-readable storage medium (or more specifically a computer-readable storage medium) 624 on which is stored one or more sets of instructions 626 for policy creation tool 200 and labeling subsystem 300 embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 626 for policy creation tool 104 and labeling subsystem 110 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 604 and/or within the processing device 602 during execution thereof by the computer system 600, the main memory 604 and the processing device 602 also constituting computer-readable storage media. The instructions 626 for policy creation tool 104 and labeling subsystem 110 may further be transmitted or received over a network via the network interface device 622.
While the computer-readable storage medium 624 is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions 626. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machine that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions above are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “identifying,” “creating,” “associating,” “maintaining,” “receiving,” “authenticating,” “refraining,” “identifying,” “specifying,” “determining,” “granting,” “accessing,” “assigning,” “executing,” “monitoring,” “detecting,” “requesting,” and “adjusting,” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
Embodiments of the present invention also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may be a general purpose computer system selectively programmed by a computer program stored in the computer system. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk including optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, other type of machine-accessible storage media, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, each coupled to a computer system bus.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear as set forth in the description below. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.
It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading and understanding the above description. Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments, it will be recognized that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
