dovecot_selinux(8)

🌸 dovecot_selinux(8) — the SELinux policy for dovecot, explained 💖

okay so this is dovecot_selinux, from the SELinux Policy dovecot manual fam 🫶 — and it's literally the whole vibe guide to how SELinux locks down your dovecot processes. buckle up bestie ✨

💫 NAME 💫

dovecot_selinux — Security Enhanced Linux Policy for the dovecot processes. that's it, that's the tweet 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Security-Enhanced Linux secures the dovecot processes via flexible mandatory access control. mandatory means you don't get a vote, and honestly? iconic 👑

The dovecot processes execute with the dovecot_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 dovecot_t

✨ ENTRYPOINTS ✨

The dovecot_t SELinux type can be entered via the dovecot_exec_t file type. so like, that's the door 🚪

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

/usr/bin/dovecot

👑 PROCESS TYPES 👑

SELinux defines process types (domains) for each process running on the system — one label per vibe, no cap.

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

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

The following process types are defined for dovecot:

dovecot_t, doveot_auth_t... no wait, dovecot_t, dovecot_auth_t, dovecot_deliver_t 🎀

Note: semanage permissive -a dovecot_t can be used to make the process type dovecot_t permissive. SELinux does not deny access to permissive process types, but the AVC (SELinux denials) messages are still generated. so it's like, "i won't stop you but i WILL be taking notes" 📝

🌈 BOOLEANS 🌈

SELinux policy is customizable based on least access required. dovecot policy is extremely flexible and has several booleans that allow you to manipulate the policy and run dovecot with the tightest access possible. toggles on toggles, we love to see it 🎛️

If you want to dontaudit all daemons scheduling requests (setsched, sys_nice), you must turn on the daemons_dontaudit_scheduling boolean. Enabled by default.

setsebool -P daemons_dontaudit_scheduling 1

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 confined applications to run with kerberos, you must turn on the kerberos_enabled boolean. Enabled by default.

setsebool -P kerberos_enabled 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

🧚 MANAGED FILES 🧚

The SELinux process type dovecot_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. yes, both. SELinux said "and also DAC", she's thorough like that 💁

• cifs_t — no default paths listed, she's mysterious like that 🌫️
• cluster_conf_t

/etc/cluster(/.*)?

• cluster_var_lib_t

/var/lib/pcsd(/.*)?
/var/lib/cluster(/.*)?
/var/lib/openais(/.*)?
/var/lib/pengine(/.*)?
/var/lib/corosync(/.*)?
/usr/lib/heartbeat(/.*)?
/var/lib/heartbeat(/.*)?
/var/lib/pacemaker(/.*)?

• cluster_var_run_t

/run/crm(/.*)?
/run/cman_.*
/run/rsctmp(/.*)?
/run/aisexec.*
/run/heartbeat(/.*)?
/run/pcsd-ruby.socket
/run/corosync-qnetd(/.*)?
/run/corosync-qdevice(/.*)?
/run/pcsd.socket
/run/corosync.pid
/run/cpglockd.pid
/run/rgmanager.pid
/run/cluster/rgmanager.sk

• data_home_t

/root/.local/share(/.*)?
/home/[^/]+/.local/share(/.*)?

• dovecot_spool_t

/var/spool/dovecot(/.*)?

• dovecot_tmp_t — no default paths listed ✨
• dovecot_var_lib_t

/var/lib/dovecot(/.*)?
/run/dovecot/login/ssl-parameters.dat

• dovecot_var_log_t

/var/log/dovecot(/.*)?
/var/log/dovecot.log.*

• dovecot_var_run_t

/run/dovecot(-login)?(/.*)?

• ecryptfs_t

/home/[^/]+/.Private(/.*)?
/home/[^/]+/.ecryptfs(/.*)?

• fusefs_t

/run/user/[0-9]+/gvfs

• 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

• mail_home_rw_t

/root/Maildir(/.*)?
/root/.esmtp_queue(/.*)?
/var/lib/arpwatch/.esmtp_queue(/.*)?
/var/cache/ddclient/.esmtp_queue(/.*)?
/home/[^/]+/.maildir(/.*)?
/home/[^/]+/Maildir(/.*)?
/home/[^/]+/.esmtp_queue(/.*)?

• mail_spool_t

/var/mail(/.*)?
/var/spool/imap(/.*)?
/var/spool/mail(/.*)?
/var/spool/smtpd(/.*)?

• nfs_t — no default paths listed 🌙
• root_t

/sysroot/.aleph-version.json
/sysroot/ostree/deploy/.*-atomic/deploy(/.*)?
/
/initrd
/var/lib/ntp

• security_t

/selinux

• user_home_t

/home/[^/]+/.+

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🎀 FILE CONTEXTS 🎀

SELinux requires files to have an extended attribute to define the file type. yes, every file gets a little name tag 🏷️

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

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

💜 EQUIVALENCE DIRECTORIES 💜

dovecot policy stores data with multiple different file context types under the /var/log/dovecot directory. If you would like to store the data in a different directory you can use the semanage command to create an equivalence mapping. If you wanted to store this data under the /srv directory you would execute the following command:

semanage fcontext -a -e /var/log/dovecot /srv/dovecot
restorecon -R -v /srv/dovecot

like a "same energy" label for a whole other directory, slay 💫

🌟 STANDARD FILE CONTEXT 🌟

SELinux defines the file context types for the dovecot, 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 dovecot_exec_t '/srv/dovecot/content(/.*)?'
restorecon -R -v /srv/mydovecot_content

Note: SELinux often uses regular expressions to specify labels that match multiple files. regex my beloved 😭

The following file types are defined for dovecot:

• dovecot_auth_exec_t Set files with the dovecot_auth_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the dovecot_auth_t domain.

Paths:

/usr/lib/dovecot/auth, /usr/libexec/dovecot/auth,
/usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-auth

• dovecot_auth_tmp_t Set files with the dovecot_auth_tmp_t type, if you want to store dovecot auth temporary files in the /tmp directories.
• dovecot_cert_t Set files with the dovecot_cert_t type, if you want to treat the files as dovecot certificate data.

Paths:

/etc/pki/dovecot(/.*)?, /usr/share/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem,
/usr/share/ssl/private/dovecot.pem

• dovecot_deliver_exec_t Set files with the dovecot_deliver_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the dovecot_deliver_t domain.

Paths:

/usr/lib/dovecot/deliver, /usr/lib/dovecot/dovecot-lda,
/usr/libexec/dovecot/deliver, /usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-lda

• dovecot_deliver_tmp_t Set files with the dovecot_deliver_tmp_t type, if you want to store dovecot deliver temporary files in the /tmp directories.
• dovecot_etc_t Set files with the dovecot_etc_t type, if you want to store dovecot files in the /etc directories.

Paths:

/etc/dovecot(/.*)?, /etc/dovecot.conf.*

• dovecot_exec_t Set files with the dovecot_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the dovecot_t domain.
• dovecot_initrc_exec_t Set files with the dovecot_initrc_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the dovecot_initrc_t domain.
• dovecot_keytab_t Set files with the dovecot_keytab_t type, if you want to treat the files as kerberos keytab files.
• dovecot_passwd_t Set files with the dovecot_passwd_t type, if you want to treat the files as dovecot passwd data.
• dovecot_spool_t Set files with the dovecot_spool_t type, if you want to store the dovecot files under the /var/spool directory.
• dovecot_tmp_t Set files with the dovecot_tmp_t type, if you want to store dovecot temporary files in the /tmp directories.
• dovecot_var_lib_t Set files with the dovecot_var_lib_t type, if you want to store the dovecot files under the /var/lib directory.

Paths:

/var/lib/dovecot(/.*)?, /run/dovecot/login/ssl-parameters.dat

• dovecot_var_log_t Set files with the dovecot_var_log_t type, if you want to treat the data as dovecot var log data, usually stored under the /var/log directory.

Paths:

/var/log/dovecot(/.*)?, /var/log/dovecot.log.*

• dovecot_var_run_t Set files with the dovecot_var_run_t type, if you want to store the dovecot files under the /run or /var/run directory.

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. temporary chcon is giving "sticker on the laptop that peels off", semanage fcontext + restorecon is giving permanent tattoo 💀

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🫶 COMMANDS 🫶

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. a GUI!! for the mouse girlies 🖱️✨

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

This manual page was auto-generated using sepolicy manpage . (yes, there's a space before the period, we don't comment on it, she's doing her best 🥺)

💀 SEE ALSO 💀

selinux(8), dovecot(8), semanage(8), restorecon(8), chcon(1), sepolicy(8), setsebool(8), dovecot_auth_selinux(8), dovecot_auth_selinux(8), dovecot_deliver_selinux(8), dovecot_deliver_selinux(8)

(and yes, dovecot_auth_selinux(8) and dovecot_deliver_selinux(8) are each listed twice in the source and we are keeping that energy fr fr, they said it twice because they meant it 😌)

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and that's the whole page bestie, tysm for reading 💖 this was dovecot version 26-10-06, page dovecot_selinux(8) — go forth and label responsibly, mwah 🎀🦋✨