Re: Access to raw memory: remove or make boolean?

[Topi Miettinen <toiwoton@gmail.com>]

On 24.2.2020 17.42, Russell Coker wrote:
> On Tuesday, 25 February 2020 2:11:46 AM AEDT Topi Miettinen wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I made a PR 192 (https://github.com/SELinuxProject/refpolicy/pull/192)
>> for introducing a new boolean to disable access to raw memory devices
>> (/dev/mem, /dev/kmem, /dev/mergemem, dev/oldmem, /dev/port) because on
>> modern systems, direct access shouldn't be needed anymore. Chris
>> PeBenito asked to propose to this list whether instead of boolean, the
>> access should be removed unconditionally if it's no longer needed. I
>> think boolean could be useful for those systems where this is still
>> needed but still use latest reference policy.
> 
> https://lwn.net/Articles/147901/
> 
> A quick search turned up the above article from 2005 debating whether /dev/
> kmem was of any use then.
> 
> ./admin/ddcprobe.te:dev_read_raw_memory(ddcprobe_t)
> ./admin/ddcprobe.te:dev_wx_raw_memory(ddcprobe_t)
> ./admin/dmidecode.te:dev_read_raw_memory(dmidecode_t)
> ./admin/kudzu.te:dev_rx_raw_memory(kudzu_t)
> ./admin/kudzu.te:dev_wx_raw_memory(kudzu_t)
> ./admin/mcelog.te:dev_read_raw_memory(mcelog_t)
> ./admin/rpm.te:dev_read_raw_memory(rpm_t)
> ./admin/sosreport.te:dev_read_raw_memory(sosreport_t)
> ./admin/tboot.te:dev_read_raw_memory(txtstat_t)
> ./admin/vbetool.te:dev_wx_raw_memory(vbetool_t)
> ./admin/vbetool.te:dev_read_raw_memory(vbetool_t)
> ./apps/vmware.te:dev_read_raw_memory(vmware_t)
> ./apps/vmware.te:dev_write_raw_memory(vmware_t)
> ./services/hal.te:dev_read_raw_memory(hald_t)
> ./services/hal.te:dev_read_raw_memory(hald_mac_t)
> ./services/hal.te:dev_write_raw_memory(hald_mac_t)
> ./services/devicekit.te:        dev_read_raw_memory(devicekit_disk_t)
> ./services/colord.te:dev_read_raw_memory(colord_t)
> ./services/colord.te:dev_write_raw_memory(colord_t)
> ./services/xserver.te:dev_read_raw_memory(xserver_t)
> ./services/xserver.te:dev_wx_raw_memory(xserver_t)
> ./system/iscsi.te:dev_read_raw_memory(iscsid_t)
> ./system/iscsi.te:dev_write_raw_memory(iscsid_t)
> ./system/raid.te:dev_read_raw_memory(mdadm_t)
> ./system/init.te:       dev_rx_raw_memory(initrc_t)
> ./system/init.te:       dev_wx_raw_memory(initrc_t)
> ./system/logging.te:dev_read_raw_memory(klogd_t)

The PR would make all these conditional to new boolean, 
allow_raw_memory_access.

> A quick grep of the latest policy turned up the above access to /dev/mem.  Do
> ddcprobe_t, vbetool_t, and the X server still do that?  mcelog_t, and klogd_t
> might have good uses, as might sosreport_t (don't even know what it does but
> guessing it's like klogd_t).  rpm_t should maybe transition to a different
> domain for whatever it was doing and the same for kudzo_t.  Vmware  is a bit
> ugly, so vmware_t might actually do that.  iscsi_t, mdadm_t, colord_t, and
> initrc_t should never have needed that.  hald_t, hald_mac_t and
> devicekit_disk_t might have needed it, but hopefully that was fixed a long
> time ago.
> 
> Interestingly bootloader_t doesn't have such access even though a quick
> inspection of the LILO source code shows that it still probes the boot order
> by directly reading the BIOS memory.  I guess no-one uses LILO with SE Linux.

I also don't know most of these programs. Direct memory access was 
probably needed for X server during SVGA times, at least NVIDIA driver 
on my system does not seem to need it.

-Topi