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![Kees Cook](/assets/img/avatar_default.png)
Adjust IMA-templates.txt for ReST markup and add to the index for security/, under the Kernel API Documentation. Cc: Mimi Zohar <zohar@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
94 lines
4.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
94 lines
4.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
=================================
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IMA Template Management Mechanism
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=================================
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Introduction
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============
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The original ``ima`` template is fixed length, containing the filedata hash
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and pathname. The filedata hash is limited to 20 bytes (md5/sha1).
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The pathname is a null terminated string, limited to 255 characters.
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To overcome these limitations and to add additional file metadata, it is
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necessary to extend the current version of IMA by defining additional
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templates. For example, information that could be possibly reported are
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the inode UID/GID or the LSM labels either of the inode and of the process
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that is accessing it.
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However, the main problem to introduce this feature is that, each time
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a new template is defined, the functions that generate and display
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the measurements list would include the code for handling a new format
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and, thus, would significantly grow over the time.
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The proposed solution solves this problem by separating the template
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management from the remaining IMA code. The core of this solution is the
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definition of two new data structures: a template descriptor, to determine
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which information should be included in the measurement list; a template
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field, to generate and display data of a given type.
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Managing templates with these structures is very simple. To support
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a new data type, developers define the field identifier and implement
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two functions, init() and show(), respectively to generate and display
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measurement entries. Defining a new template descriptor requires
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specifying the template format (a string of field identifiers separated
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by the ``|`` character) through the ``ima_template_fmt`` kernel command line
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parameter. At boot time, IMA initializes the chosen template descriptor
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by translating the format into an array of template fields structures taken
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from the set of the supported ones.
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After the initialization step, IMA will call ``ima_alloc_init_template()``
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(new function defined within the patches for the new template management
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mechanism) to generate a new measurement entry by using the template
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descriptor chosen through the kernel configuration or through the newly
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introduced ``ima_template`` and ``ima_template_fmt`` kernel command line parameters.
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It is during this phase that the advantages of the new architecture are
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clearly shown: the latter function will not contain specific code to handle
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a given template but, instead, it simply calls the ``init()`` method of the template
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fields associated to the chosen template descriptor and store the result
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(pointer to allocated data and data length) in the measurement entry structure.
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The same mechanism is employed to display measurements entries.
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The functions ``ima[_ascii]_measurements_show()`` retrieve, for each entry,
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the template descriptor used to produce that entry and call the show()
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method for each item of the array of template fields structures.
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Supported Template Fields and Descriptors
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=========================================
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In the following, there is the list of supported template fields
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``('<identifier>': description)``, that can be used to define new template
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descriptors by adding their identifier to the format string
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(support for more data types will be added later):
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- 'd': the digest of the event (i.e. the digest of a measured file),
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calculated with the SHA1 or MD5 hash algorithm;
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- 'n': the name of the event (i.e. the file name), with size up to 255 bytes;
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- 'd-ng': the digest of the event, calculated with an arbitrary hash
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algorithm (field format: [<hash algo>:]digest, where the digest
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prefix is shown only if the hash algorithm is not SHA1 or MD5);
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- 'n-ng': the name of the event, without size limitations;
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- 'sig': the file signature.
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Below, there is the list of defined template descriptors:
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- "ima": its format is ``d|n``;
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- "ima-ng" (default): its format is ``d-ng|n-ng``;
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- "ima-sig": its format is ``d-ng|n-ng|sig``.
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Use
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===
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To specify the template descriptor to be used to generate measurement entries,
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currently the following methods are supported:
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- select a template descriptor among those supported in the kernel
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configuration (``ima-ng`` is the default choice);
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- specify a template descriptor name from the kernel command line through
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the ``ima_template=`` parameter;
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- register a new template descriptor with custom format through the kernel
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command line parameter ``ima_template_fmt=``.
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