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MAC_LOMAC(4)		 BSD 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 in-
     formation flow policy coupled with	the subject demotion via floating la-
     bels.  In LOMAC, all system subjects and objects are assigned integrity
     labels, made up of	one or more hierarchical grades, depending on the
     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	hier-
     archal 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 anything 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 in-
     tegrity 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 de-
     motion occurs, in addition	to the permission of the subject being re-
     duced, 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 as-
     sumed 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 be-
     havior 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 en-
     vironments, both from the perspective of preventing corruption of the op-
     erating 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.

BSD			       February	25, 2012			   BSD

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

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