How logins get their SELinux user context

how-logins-get-their-selinux-user-context

Sven Vermeulen Sat 27 April 2013

Sometimes, especially when users are converting their systems to be SELinux-enabled, their user context is wrong. An example would be when, after logon (in permissive mode), the user is in the system_u:system_r:local_login_t domain instead of a user domain like staff_u:staff_r:staff_t.
So, how does a login get its SELinux user context?

Let's look at the entire chain of SELinux context changes across a boot. At first, when the system boots, the kernel (and all processes invoked from it) run in the kernel_t domain (I'm going to ignore the other context fields for now until they become relevant). When the kernel initialization has been completed, the kernel executes the init binary. When you use an initramfs, then a script might be called. This actually doesn't matter that much yet, since SELinux stays within the kernel_t domain until a SELinux-aware init is launched.

When the init binary is executed, init of course starts. But as mentioned, init is SELinux-aware, meaning it will invoke SELinux-related commands. One of these is that it will load the SELinux policy (as stored in /etc/selinux) and then reexecute itself. Because of that, its process context changes from kernel_t towards init_t. This is because the init binary itself is labeled as init_exec_t and a type transition is defined from kernel_t towards init_t when init_exec_t is executed.

Ok, so init now runs in init_t and it goes on with whatever it needs to do. This includes invoking init scripts (which, btw, run in initrc_t because the scripts are labeled initrc_exec_t or with a type that has the init_script_file_type attribute set, and a transition from init_t to initrc_t is defined when such files are executed). When the bootup is finally completed, init launches the getty processes. The commands are mentioned in /etc/inittab:

$ grep getty /etc/inittab
c1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty --noclear 38400 tty1 linux
c2:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux
...

These binaries are also explicitly labeled getty_exec_t. As a result, the getty (or agetty) processes run in the getty_t domain (because a transition is defined from init_t to getty_t when getty_exec_t is executed). Ok, so gettys run in getty_t. But what happens when a user now logs on to the system?

Well, the getty's invoke the login binary which, you guessed it right, is labeled as something: login_exec_t. As a result (because, again, a transition is defined in the policy), the login process runs as local_login_t. Now the login process invokes the various PAM subroutines which follow the definitions in /etc/pam.d/login. On Gentoo systems, this by default points to the system-local-login definitions which points to the system-login definitions. And in this definition, especially under the sessions section, we find a reference to pam_selinux.so:

session         required        pam_selinux.so close
...
session         required        pam_selinux.so multiple open

Now here is where some of the magic starts (see my post on Using pam_selinux to switch contexts for the gritty details). The methods inside the pam_selinux.so binary will look up what the context should be for a user login. For instance, when the root user logs on, it has SELinux checking what SELinux user root is mapped to, equivalent to running semanage login -l:

$ semanage login -l | grep ^root
root                      root

In this case, the SELinux user for root is root, but this is not always the case (that login and user are the same). For instance, my regular administrative account maps to the staff_u SELinux user.

Next, it checks what the default context should be for this user. This is done by checking the default_contexts file (such as the one in /etc/selinux/strict/contexts although user-specific overrides can be (and are) placed in the users subdirectory) based on the context of the process that is asking SELinux what the default context should be. In our case, it is the login process running as local_login_t:

$ grep -HR local_login_t /etc/selinux/strict/contexts/*
default_contexts:system_r:local_login_t user_r:user_t staff_r:staff_t sysadm_r:sysadm_t unconfined_r:unconfined_t
users/unconfined_u:system_r:local_login_t               unconfined_r:unconfined_t
users/guest_u:system_r:local_login_t            guest_r:guest_t
users/user_u:system_r:local_login_t             user_r:user_t
users/staff_u:system_r:local_login_t            staff_r:staff_t sysadm_r:sysadm_t
users/root:system_r:local_login_t  unconfined_r:unconfined_t sysadm_r:sysadm_t staff_r:staff_t user_r:user_t
users/xguest_u:system_r:local_login_t   xguest_r:xguest_t

Since we are verifying this for the root SELinux user, the following line of the users/root file is what matters:

system_r:local_login_t  unconfined_r:unconfined_t sysadm_r:sysadm_t staff_r:staff_t user_r:user_t

Here, SELinux looks for the first match in that line that the user has access to. This is defined by the roles that the user is allowed to access:

$ semanage user -l | grep root
root            staff_r sysadm_r

As root is allowed both the staff_r and sysadm_r roles, the first one found in the default context file that matches will be used. So it is not the order in which the roles are displayed in the semanage user -l output that matters, but the order of the contexts in the default context file. In the example, this is sysadm_r:sysadm_t:

system_r:local_login_t  unconfined_r:unconfined_t sysadm_r:sysadm_t staff_r:staff_t user_r:user_t
                        <-----------+-----------> <-------+-------> <------+------> <-----+----->
                                    `- no matching role   `- first (!)     `- second      `- no match

Now that we know what the context should be, this is used for the first execution that the process (still login) will do. So login changes the Linux user (if applicable) and invokes the shell of that user. Because this is the first execution that is done by login, the new context is set (being root:sysadm_r:sysadm_t) for the shell.

And that is why, if you run id -Z, it returns the user context (root:sysadm_r:sysadm_t) if everything works out fine ;-)