xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/secmodel_bsd44.9 (revision 1ad9454efb13a65cd7535ccf867508cb14d9d30e)
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31.Dd September 19, 2006
32.Dt SECMODEL_BSD44 9
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm secmodel_bsd44
36.Nd traditional
37.Nx
38security model (based on
39.Bx 4.4 )
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In secmodel/bsd44/bsd44.h
42.In secmodel/bsd44/securelevel.h
43.In secmodel/bsd44/suser.h
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Nm
46is the default security model in
47.Nx .
48It is the traditional security model based on
49.Bx 4.4
50and is composed of two main concepts, the
51.Em super-user
52and the
53.Em securelevel .
54.Ss Super-user
55The
56.Em super-user
57is the host administrator, considered to have higher privileges than other
58users.
59It is the only entity the kernel recognizes by having an effective user-id
60of zero.
61.Ss Securelevel
62The securelevel mechanism is intended to allow protecting the persistance
63of code and data on the system, or a subset thereof, from modification, even
64by the super-user, by providing convenient means of
65.Dq locking down
66a system to a degree suited to its environment.
67.Pp
68The super-user can raise the securelevel using
69.Xr sysctl 8 ,
70but only
71.Xr init 8
72can lower it.
73.Pp
74.Nm
75provides four levels of securelevel, defined as follows:
76.Bl -tag -width flag
77.It \&-1 Em Permanently insecure mode
78.Bl -hyphen -compact
79.It
80Don't raise the securelevel on boot
81.El
82.It \ 0 Em Insecure mode
83.Bl -hyphen -compact
84.It
85The init process (PID 1) may not be traced or accessed by
86.Xr ptrace 2 ,
87.Xr systrace 4 ,
88or procfs.
89.It
90Immutable and append-only file flags may be changed
91.It
92All devices may be read or written subject to their permissions
93.El
94.It \ 1 Em Secure mode
95.Bl -hyphen -compact
96.It
97All effects of securelevel 0
98.It
99.Pa /dev/mem
100and
101.Pa /dev/kmem
102may not be written to
103.It
104Raw disk devices of mounted file systems are read-only
105.It
106Immutable and append-only file flags may not be removed
107.It
108Kernel modules may not be loaded or unloaded
109.It
110The
111.Va net.inet.ip.sourceroute
112.Xr sysctl 8
113variable may not be changed
114.It
115Adding or removing
116.Xr sysctl 9
117nodes is denied
118.It
119The RTC offset may not be changed
120.It
121Set-id coredump settings may not be altered
122.El
123.It \ 2 Em Highly secure mode
124.Bl -hyphen -compact
125.It
126All effects of securelevel 1
127.It
128Raw disk devices are always read-only whether mounted or not
129.It
130New disks may not be mounted, and existing mounts may only be downgraded
131from read-write to read-only
132.It
133The system clock may not be set backwards or close to overflow
134.It
135Per-process coredump name may not be changed
136.It
137Packet filtering and NAT rules may not be altered
138.El
139.El
140.Pp
141Highly secure mode may seem Draconian, but is intended as a last line of
142defence should the superuser account be compromised.
143Its effects preclude
144circumvention of file flags by direct modification of a raw disk device,
145or erasure of a file system by means of
146.Xr newfs 8 .
147Further, it can limit the potential damage of a compromised
148.Dq firewall
149by prohibiting the modification of packet filter rules.
150Preventing
151the system clock from being set backwards aids in post-mortem analysis
152and helps ensure the integrity of logs.
153Precision timekeeping is not
154affected because the clock may still be slowed.
155.Pp
156Normally, the system runs in securelevel 0 while single-user and in
157securelevel 1 while multi-user.
158If a higher securelevel is desired while running multi-user,
159it can be set using the
160.Em securelevel
161keyword in the startup script
162.Pa /etc/rc.conf ,
163see
164.Xr rc.conf 5
165for details.
166Lower securelevels require the kernel to be compiled with
167.Sy options INSECURE ,
168causing it to always default to securelevel \-1.
169.Pp
170In order for this protection to be effective, the administrator
171must ensure that no program that is run while the security level
172is 0 or lower, nor any data or configuration file used by any such
173program, can be modified while the security level is greater than
1740.
175This may be achieved through the careful use of the
176.Dq immutable
177file flag to define and protect a Trusted Computing Base (TCB)
178consisting of all such programs and data, or by ensuring that all
179such programs and data are on filesystems that are mounted read-only
180and running at security level 2 or higher.
181.Em Particular care must be taken to ensure, if relying upon
182.Em security level 1 and the use of file flags, that the integrity of the
183.Em TCB cannot be compromised through the use of modifications to the
184.Em disklabel or access to overlapping disk partitions, including the
185.Em raw partition .
186.Pp
187Do not overlook the fact that shell scripts (or anything else fed to an
188interpreter, through any mechanism) and the kernel itself are "programs
189that run while the security level is 0" and must be considered part of
190the TCB.
191.Sh SEE ALSO
192.Xr kauth 9 ,
193.Xr secmodel 9
194.Sh AUTHORS
195.An Elad Efrat Aq elad@NetBSD.org
196.Sh BUGS
197Systems without
198.Xr sysctl 8
199behave as though they have security level \-1.
200.Pp
201The security level 2 restrictions relating to TCB integrity protection
202should be enforced at security level 1.
203Restrictions dependent upon security level but not relating to TCB
204integrity protection should be selected by
205.Xr sysctl 8
206settings available only at security level 0 or lower.
207