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MAC_LOMAC(4)	       FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual		  MAC_LOMAC(4)

NAME
     mac_lomac -- Low-watermark	Mandatory Access Control data integrity	policy

SYNOPSIS
     To	compile	LOMAC into your	kernel,	place the following lines in your ker-
     nel configuration file:

	   options MAC
	   options MAC_LOMAC

     Alternately, to load the LOMAC module at boot time, place the following
     line in your kernel configuration file:

	   options MAC

     and in loader.conf(5):

	   mac_lomac_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
     The mac_lomac policy module implements the	LOMAC integrity	model, which
     protects the integrity of system objects and subjects by means of an
     information flow policy coupled with the subject demotion via floating
     labels.  In LOMAC,	all system subjects and	objects	are assigned integrity
     labels, made up of	one or more hierarchical grades, depending on their
     types.  Together, these label elements permit all labels to be placed in
     a partial order, with information flow protections	and demotion decisions
     based on a	dominance operator describing the order.  The hierarchal grade
     field or fields are expressed as a	value between 0	and 65535, with	higher
     values reflecting higher integrity.

     Three special label component values exist:

	   Label    Comparison
	   low	    dominated by all other labels
	   equal    equal to all other labels
	   high	    dominates all other	labels

     The ``high'' label	is assigned to system objects which affect the
     integrity of the system as	a whole.  The ``equal''	label may be used to
     indicate that a particular	subject	or object is exempt from the LOMAC
     protections.  For example,	a label	of ``lomac/equal(equal-equal)''	might
     be	used on	a subject which	is to be used to administratively relabel any-
     thing on the system.

     Almost all	system objects are tagged with a single, active	label element,
     reflecting	the integrity of the object, or	integrity of the data con-
     tained in the object.  File system	objects	may contain an additional aux-
     iliary label which	determines the inherited integrity level for new files
     created in	a directory or the alternate label assumed by the subject upon
     execution of an executable.  In general, objects labels are represented
     in	the following form:

	   lomac/grade[auxgrade]

     For example:

	   lomac/10[2]
	   lomac/low

     Subject labels consist of three label elements: a single (active) label,
     as	well as	a range	of available labels.  This range is represented	using
     two ordered LOMAC label elements, and when	set on a process, permits the
     process to	change its active label	to any label of	greater	or equal
     integrity to the low end of the range, and	lesser or equal	integrity to
     the high end of the range.	 In general, subject labels are	represented in
     the following form:

	   lomac/singlegrade(lograde-higrade)

     Modification of objects is	restricted to access via the following compar-
     ison:

	   subject::higrade >= target-object::grade

     Modification of subjects is the same, as the target subject's single
     grade is the only element taken into comparison.

     Demotion of a subject occurs when the following comparison	is true:

	   subject::singlegrade	> object::grade

     When demotion occurs, the subject's singlegrade and higrade are reduced
     to	the object's grade, as well as the lograde if necessary.  When the
     demotion occurs, in addition to the permission of the subject being
     reduced, shared mmap(2) objects which it has opened in its	memory space
     may be revoked according to the following sysctl(3) variables:

     +o	 security.mac.lomac.revocation_enabled
     +o	 security.mac.enforce_vm
     +o	 security.mac.mmap_revocation
     +o	 security.mac.mmap_revocation_via_cow

     Upon execution of a file, if the executable has an	auxiliary label, and
     that label	is within the current range of lograde-higrade,	it will	be
     assumed by	the subject immediately.  After	this, demotion is performed
     just as with any other read operation, with the executable	as the target.
     Through the use of	auxiliary labels, programs may be initially executed
     at	a lower	effective integrity level, while retaining the ability to
     raise it again.

     These rules prevent subjects of lower integrity from influencing the
     behavior of higher	integrity subjects by preventing the flow of informa-
     tion, and hence control, from allowing low	integrity subjects to modify
     either a high integrity object or high integrity subjects acting on those
     objects.  LOMAC integrity policies	may be appropriate in a	number of
     environments, both	from the perspective of	preventing corruption of the
     operating system, and corruption of user data if marked as	higher
     integrity than the	attacker.

     The LOMAC security	model is quite similar to that of mac_biba(4) and
     mac_mls(4)	in various ways.  More background information on this can be
     found in their respective man pages.

SEE ALSO
     mmap(2), sysctl(3), mac(4), mac_biba(4), mac_bsdextended(4),
     mac_ifoff(4), mac_mls(4), mac_none(4), mac_partition(4), mac_portacl(4),
     mac_seeotheruids(4), mac_test(4), mac(9)

HISTORY
     The mac_lomac policy module first appeared	in FreeBSD 5.0 and was devel-
     oped by the TrustedBSD Project.

AUTHORS
     This software was contributed to the FreeBSD Project by Network Asso-
     ciates Labs, the Security Research	Division of Network Associates Inc.
     under DARPA/SPAWAR	contract N66001-01-C-8035 (``CBOSS''), as part of the
     DARPA CHATS research program.

FreeBSD	11.1		       February	25, 2012		  FreeBSD 11.1

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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