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MAC(3)		       FreeBSD Library Functions Manual			MAC(3)

NAME
     mac -- introduction to the	MAC security API

LIBRARY
     Standard C	Library	(libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/mac.h>

     In	the kernel configuration file:
     options MAC

DESCRIPTION
     Mandatory Access Control labels describe confidentiality, integrity, and
     other security attributes of operating system objects, overriding discre-
     tionary access control.  Not all system objects support MAC labeling, and
     MAC policies must be explicitly enabled by	the administrator.  This API,
     based on POSIX.1e,	includes routines to retrieve, manipulate, set,	and
     convert to	and from text the MAC labels on	files and processes.

     MAC labels	consist	of a set of (name, value) tuples, representing secu-
     rity attributes from MAC policies.	 For example, this label contains se-
     curity labels defined by two policies, mac_biba(4)	and mac_mls(4):

	   biba/low,mls/low

     Further syntax and	semantics of MAC labels	may be found in	maclabel(7).

     Applications operate on labels stored in mac_t, but can convert between
     this internal format and a	text format for	the purposes of	presentation
     to	uses or	external storage.  When	querying a label on an object, a mac_t
     must first	be prepared using the interfaces described in mac_prepare(3),
     allowing the application to declare which policies	it wishes to interro-
     gate.  The	application writer can also rely on default label names	de-
     clared in mac.conf(5).

     When finished with	a mac_t, the application must call mac_free(3) to re-
     lease its storage.

     The following functions are defined:

     mac_is_present()
	     This function, described in mac_is_present(3), allows applica-
	     tions to test whether MAC is configured, as well as whether spe-
	     cific policies are	configured.

     mac_get_fd(), mac_get_file(), mac_get_link(), mac_get_peer()
	     These functions, described	in mac_get(3), retrieve	the MAC	labels
	     associated	with file descriptors, files, and socket peers.

     mac_get_pid(), mac_get_proc()
	     These functions, described	in mac_get(3), retrieve	the MAC	labels
	     associated	with processes.

     mac_set_fd(), mac_set_file(), mac_set_link()
	     These functions, described	in mac_set(3), set the MAC labels as-
	     sociated with file	descriptors and	files.

     mac_set_proc()
	     This function, described in mac_set(3), sets the MAC label	asso-
	     ciated with the current process.

     mac_free()
	     This function, described in mac_free(3), frees working MAC	label
	     storage.

     mac_from_text()
	     This function, described in mac_text(3), converts a text-form MAC
	     label into	working	MAC label storage, mac_t.

     mac_prepare(), mac_prepare_file_label(), mac_prepare_ifnet_label(),
	     mac_prepare_process_label(), mac_prepare_type()
	     These functions,  described in mac_prepare(3), allocate working
	     storage for MAC label operations.	mac_prepare(3) prepares	a la-
	     bel based on caller-specified label names;	the other calls	rely
	     on	the default configuration specified in mac.conf(5).

     mac_to_text()
	     This function is described	in mac_text(3),	and may	be used	to
	     convert a mac_t into a text-form MAC label.

FILES
     /etc/mac.conf  MAC	library	configuration file, documented in mac.conf(5).
		    Provides default behavior for applications aware of	MAC
		    labels on system objects, but without policy-specific
		    knowledge.

SEE ALSO
     mac_free(3), mac_get(3), mac_is_present(3), mac_prepare(3), mac_set(3),
     mac_text(3), posix1e(3), mac(4), mac.conf(5), mac(9)

STANDARDS
     These APIs	are loosely based on the APIs described	in POSIX.1e, as	de-
     scribed in	IEEE POSIX.1e draft 17.	 However, the resemblance of these
     APIs to the POSIX APIs is loose, as the POSIX APIs	were unable to express
     some notions required for flexible	and extensible access control.

HISTORY
     Support for Mandatory Access Control was introduced in FreeBSD 5.0	as
     part of the TrustedBSD Project.

FreeBSD	13.0			 July 25, 2015			  FreeBSD 13.0

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY

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