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MAC(4)			    Kernel Interfaces Manual			MAC(4)

NAME
       mac -- Mandatory	Access Control

SYNOPSIS
       options MAC

DESCRIPTION
   Introduction
       The  Mandatory  Access Control, or MAC, framework allows	administrators
       to finely control system	security by providing for a loadable  security
       policy  architecture.   It is important to note that due	to its nature,
       MAC security policies may only restrict access relative to one  another
       and the base system policy; they	cannot override	traditional Unix secu-
       rity provisions such as file permissions	and superuser checks.

       Currently, the following	MAC policy modules are shipped with FreeBSD:

       Name		      Description		       Labeling	   Load
											time
       mac_biba(4)	      Biba				     integrity
											policy		  yes	      boot
											only
       mac_bsdextended(4)     File system firewall	       no	   any
											time
       mac_ddb(4)	      ddb(4) interface restrictions    no	   any
											time
       mac_ifoff(4)	      Interface	silencing	       no	   any
											time
       mac_ipacl(4)	      IP Address access	control	       no	   any
											time
       mac_lomac(4)	      Low-Watermark				   MAC
											policy	       yes	   boot
											only
       mac_mls(4)	      Confidentiality
											policy		 yes	     boot
											only
       mac_ntpd(4)	      Non-root NTP Daemon policy       no	   any
											time
       mac_partition(4)	      Process partition	policy	       yes	   any
											time
       mac_portacl(4)	      Port bind(2) access control      no	   any
											time
       mac_priority(4)	      Scheduling priority policy       no	   any
											time
       mac_seeotheruids(4)    See-other-UIDs policy	       no	   any
											time
       mac_test(4)	      MAC testing policy	       no	   any
											time

   MAC Labels
       Each  system  subject (processes, sockets, etc.)	and each system	object
       (file system objects, sockets, etc.) can	carry with  it	a  MAC	label.
       MAC labels contain data in an arbitrary format taken into consideration
       in making access	control	decisions for a	given operation.  Most MAC la-
       bels  on	 system	subjects and objects can be modified directly or indi-
       rectly by the system administrator.  The	format for  a  given  policy's
       label  may  vary	 depending  on the type	of object or subject being la-
       beled.  More information	on the format for MAC labels can be  found  in
       the maclabel(7) man page.

   MAC Support for UFS2	File Systems
       By default, file	system enforcement of labeled MAC policies relies on a
       single  file  system  label  (see "MAC Labels") in order	to make	access
       control decisions for all the files in a	particular file	system.	  With
       some  policies, this configuration may not allow	administrators to take
       full advantage of features.  In order to	enable	support	 for  labeling
       files  on  an  individual  basis	 for  a	 particular  file  system, the
       "multilabel" flag must be enabled on  the  file	system.	  To  set  the
       "multilabel"  flag,  drop to single-user	mode and unmount the file sys-
       tem, then execute the following command:

	     tunefs -l enable filesystem

       where filesystem	is either the mount point (in fstab(5))	or the special
       file (in	/dev) corresponding to the file	system on which	to enable mul-
       tilabel support.

   Policy Enforcement
       Policy enforcement is divided into the following	areas of the system:

       File System
       File system mounts, modifying directories, modifying files, etc.

       KLD
       Loading,	unloading, and retrieving statistics on	loaded kernel modules

       Network
       Network interfaces, bpf(4), packet delivery and transmission, interface
       configuration (ioctl(2),	ifconfig(8))

       Pipes
       Creation	of and operation on pipe(2) objects

       Processes
       Debugging (e.g. ktrace(2)), process visibility (ps(1)), process	execu-
       tion (execve(2)), signalling (kill(2))

       Sockets
       Creation	of and operation on socket(2) objects

       System
       Kernel  environment  (kenv(1)), system accounting (acct(2)), reboot(2),
       settimeofday(2),	swapon(2), sysctl(3), nfsd(8)-related operations

       VM
       mmap(2)-ed files

   Setting MAC Labels
       From the	command	line, each type	of system object has its own means for
       setting and modifying its MAC policy label.

	     Subject/Object	      Utility
	     File system object	      setfmac(8), setfsmac(8)
	     Network interface	      ifconfig(8)
	     TTY (by login class)     login.conf(5)
	     User (by login class)    login.conf(5)

       Additionally, the su(1) and setpmac(8) utilities	can be used to	run  a
       command with a different	process	label than the shell's current label.

   Programming With MAC
       MAC security enforcement	itself is transparent to application programs,
       with  the  exception  that  some	programs may need to be	aware of addi-
       tional errno(2) returns from various system calls.

       The interface for retrieving, handling, and setting  policy  labels  is
       documented in the mac(3)	man page.

SEE ALSO
       mac(3),	 mac_biba(4),  mac_bsdextended(4),  mac_ddb(4),	 mac_ifoff(4),
       mac_ipacl(4),  mac_lomac(4),  mac_mls(4),   mac_none(4),	  mac_ntpd(4),
       mac_partition(4), mac_portacl(4), mac_priority(4), mac_seeotheruids(4),
       mac_stub(4),   mac_test(4),   login.conf(5),  maclabel(7),  getfmac(8),
       getpmac(8), setfmac(8), setpmac(8), mac(9)

       "Mandatory     Access	 Control",     The	FreeBSD	     Handbook,
       https://docs.FreeBSD.org/en/books/handbook/mac/.

HISTORY
       The  mac	implementation first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0 and was developed
       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.

BUGS
       While  the  MAC Framework design	is intended to support the containment
       of the root user, not all attack	channels are  currently	 protected  by
       entry  point checks.  As	such, MAC Framework policies should not	be re-
       lied on,	in isolation, to protect against a malicious privileged	user.

FreeBSD	13.2			 July 25, 2023				MAC(4)

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

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