2006-08-03 16:45:49 -07:00
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NetLabel Introduction
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==============================================================================
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Paul Moore, paul.moore@hp.com
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August 2, 2006
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* Overview
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NetLabel is a mechanism which can be used by kernel security modules to attach
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security attributes to outgoing network packets generated from user space
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applications and read security attributes from incoming network packets. It
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is composed of three main components, the protocol engines, the communication
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layer, and the kernel security module API.
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* Protocol Engines
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The protocol engines are responsible for both applying and retrieving the
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network packet's security attributes. If any translation between the network
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security attributes and those on the host are required then the protocol
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engine will handle those tasks as well. Other kernel subsystems should
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refrain from calling the protocol engines directly, instead they should use
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the NetLabel kernel security module API described below.
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Detailed information about each NetLabel protocol engine can be found in this
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directory, consult '00-INDEX' for filenames.
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* Communication Layer
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The communication layer exists to allow NetLabel configuration and monitoring
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from user space. The NetLabel communication layer uses a message based
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protocol built on top of the Generic NETLINK transport mechanism. The exact
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formatting of these NetLabel messages as well as the Generic NETLINK family
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2007-05-09 08:57:56 +02:00
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names can be found in the 'net/netlabel/' directory as comments in the
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2006-08-03 16:45:49 -07:00
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header files as well as in 'include/net/netlabel.h'.
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* Security Module API
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The purpose of the NetLabel security module API is to provide a protocol
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independent interface to the underlying NetLabel protocol engines. In addition
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to protocol independence, the security module API is designed to be completely
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LSM independent which should allow multiple LSMs to leverage the same code
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base.
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Detailed information about the NetLabel security module API can be found in the
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'include/net/netlabel.h' header file as well as the 'lsm_interface.txt' file
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found in this directory.
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