passwd_selinux - Man Page

Security-Enhanced Linux secures the passwd processes via flexible mandatory access control.

The passwd processes execute with the passwd_t SELinux type. You can check if you have these processes running by executing the ps command with the -Z qualifier.

For example:

ps -eZ | grep passwd_t

The passwd_t SELinux type can be entered via the passwd_exec_t file type.

The default entrypoint paths for the passwd_t domain are the following:

/usr/bin/chage, /usr/bin/passwd, /usr/sbin/chpasswd

SELinux defines process types (domains) for each process running on the system

You can see the context of a process using the -Z option to psbP

Policy governs the access confined processes have to files. SELinux passwd policy is very flexible allowing users to setup their passwd processes in as secure a method as possible.

The following process types are defined for passwd:

passwd_t

Note: semanage permissive -a passwd_t can be used to make the process type passwd_t permissive. SELinux does not deny access to permissive process types, but the AVC (SELinux denials) messages are still generated.

SELinux policy is customizable based on least access required.  passwd policy is extremely flexible and has several booleans that allow you to manipulate the policy and run passwd with the tightest access possible.

If you want to allow all domains to execute in fips_mode, you must turn on the fips_mode boolean. Enabled by default.

setsebool -P fips_mode 1

If you want to allow system to run with NIS, you must turn on the nis_enabled boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P nis_enabled 1

If you want to allow samba to act as the domain controller, add users, groups and change passwords, you must turn on the samba_domain_controller boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P samba_domain_controller 1

The SELinux process type passwd_t can manage files labeled with the following file types.  The paths listed are the default paths for these file types.  Note the processes UID still need to have DAC permissions.

faillog_t

/var/log/btmp.*
/run/faillock(/.*)?
/var/log/faillog.*
/var/log/tallylog.*

krb5_host_rcache_t

/var/tmp/krb5_0.rcache2
/var/cache/krb5rcache(/.*)?
/var/tmp/nfs_0
/var/tmp/DNS_25
/var/tmp/host_0
/var/tmp/imap_0
/var/tmp/HTTP_23
/var/tmp/HTTP_48
/var/tmp/ldap_55
/var/tmp/ldap_487
/var/tmp/ldapmap1_0

lastlog_t

/var/log/lastlog.*

security_t

/selinux

shadow_t

/etc/tcb/.+/shadow.*
/etc/shadow.*
/etc/gshadow.*
/etc/nshadow.*
/var/db/shadow.*
/etc/security/opasswd
/etc/security/opasswd.old

SELinux requires files to have an extended attribute to define the file type.

You can see the context of a file using the -Z option to lsbP

Policy governs the access confined processes have to these files. SELinux passwd policy is very flexible allowing users to setup their passwd processes in as secure a method as possible.

STANDARD FILE CONTEXT

SELinux defines the file context types for the passwd, if you wanted to store files with these types in a different paths, you need to execute the semanage command to specify alternate labeling and then use restorecon to put the labels on disk.

semanage fcontext -a -t passwd_file_t '/srv/passwd/content(/.*)?'
restorecon -R -v /srv/mypasswd_content

Note: SELinux often uses regular expressions to specify labels that match multiple files.

The following file types are defined for passwd:

passwd_exec_t

- Set files with the passwd_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the passwd_t domain.

Paths:

/usr/bin/chage, /usr/bin/passwd, /usr/sbin/chpasswd

passwd_file_t

- Set files with the passwd_file_t type, if you want to treat the files as passwd content.

Paths:

/etc/group[-+]?, /etc/passwd[-+]?, /etc/passwd.adjunct.*, /etc/ptmptmp, /etc/.pwd.lock, /etc/group.lock, /etc/passwd.OLD, /etc/passwd.lock

Note: File context can be temporarily modified with the chcon command.  If you want to permanently change the file context you need to use the semanage fcontext command.  This will modify the SELinux labeling database.  You will need to use restorecon to apply the labels.

semanage fcontext can also be used to manipulate default file context mappings.

semanage permissive can also be used to manipulate whether or not a process type is permissive.

semanage module can also be used to enable/disable/install/remove policy modules.

semanage boolean can also be used to manipulate the booleans

system-config-selinux is a GUI tool available to customize SELinux policy settings.

This manual page was auto-generated using sepolicy manpage .

selinux(8), passwd(8), semanage(8), restorecon(8), chcon(1), sepolicy(8), setsebool(8)