Re: New LSM patch for consideration

From: jmjonesat_private
Date: Tue Jun 19 2001 - 06:51:26 PDT

  • Next message: Stephen Smalley: "Re: New LSM patch for consideration"

    On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Stephen Smalley wrote:
    
    > To be precise, the idea is that all of the LSM hooks other than
    > capable() will be purely restrictive.  As soon as we arrive
    > at a consensus on the right approach to moving capabilities
    > out of the base kernel into a module, the base capable()
    > function will once again be reduced to merely calling the
    > LSM capable() hook, so a security module will be able to
    > grant traditionally superuser privileges to non-superuser processes.
    > The capabilities security module will be a module that provides this 
    > kind of functionality. 
    > 
    > --
    > Stephen D. Smalley, NAI Labs
    > ssmalleyat_private
    
    While I see the necessity of purely-restrictive hooks for
    assurance/verification, I believe it's short sighted to explicitly define
    ALL LSM hooks as being purely restrictive, forevermore.  It may just be a
    matter of semantics.
    
    I can't help but draw a distinction between "grant[ing] traditionally 
    superuser privileges..." and being permissive, which may include
    privileges that are not "traditionally supported", potentially based on
    information that the current capabilities implementation does not take 
    into account...  
    
    It would seem that this solution simply pushes the discussion to the
    capabilities module implementation, and by calling it "capabilities"
    implies support of the pre-existing capabilities mechanism ... without
    significant extension.
    
    Is that a correct characterization?
    
    Sincerely,
    J. Melvin Jones
    
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