nova_selinux(8)

📦
version 20250627+git412.dbf877ab7 · 7 versions
, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 nova_selinux(8) — the SELinux policy tea for nova 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to the manual page for nova_selinux, which is the SELinux Policy for nova and its processes. (Yes, the manual name is nova_selinux(8) — section 8, admin tools, we love a classification system.) Grab a boba, this is gonna be a lot but it's literally all useful i promise 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

nova_selinux — the Security Enhanced Linux Policy for the nova processes, and she is that girl 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Security-Enhanced Linux secures the nova processes via flexible mandatory access control. Like, it's giving strict-but-fair parent energy. 🔥

The nova processes execute with the nova_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 nova_t

that's it, that's the vibe check 👑

🦋 ENTRYPOINTS 🦋

The nova_t SELinux type can be entered via the nova_exec_t file type. (Think of it as the VIP door — you come in through nova_exec_t, you're in nova_t land.)

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

/usr/bin/nova-console.*, /usr/bin/nova-api, /usr/bin/nova-cert,
/usr/bin/nova-cells, /usr/bin/nova-volume, /usr/bin/nova-network,
/usr/bin/nova-vncproxy, /usr/bin/nova-conductor, /usr/bin/nova-
scheduler, /usr/bin/nova-direct-api, /usr/bin/nova-novncproxy,
/usr/bin/nova-objectstore, /usr/bin/nova-serialproxy, /usr/bin/nova-
xvpvncproxy, /usr/bin/nova-api-metadata, /usr/bin/nova-ajax-console-
proxy

(yeah the line wraps mid-path, ngl that's just how the manpage renders it — copy the paths, not the line breaks 🙈)

💜 PROCESS TYPES 💜

SELinux defines process types (domains) for each process running on the system. no cap, every process gets a little personality tag 🎀

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

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

The following process types are defined for nova:

  • nova_t
Note: semanage permissive -a nova_t can be used to make the process type nova_t permissive. SELinux does not deny access to permissive process types, but the AVC (SELinux denials) messages are still generated.

(so like, permissive mode = she's not gonna stop you, but she IS gonna write it in her diary 💀)

⭐ BOOLEANS ⭐

SELinux policy is customizable based on least access required. nova policy is extremely flexible and has several booleans that allow you to manipulate the policy and run nova with the tightest access possible. Extra? no. Iconic. 👑

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 nova_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. (SELinux said "i'll handle my part," DAC is a whole separate situation, fr fr.)

  • 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
  • faillog_t
/var/log/btmp.*
/run/faillock(/.*)?
/var/log/faillog.*
/var/log/tallylog.*
  • initrc_var_run_t
/run/sysconfig(/.*)?
/run/utmp
/run/keymap
/run/numlock-on
/run/setleds-on
/run/runlevel.dir
/run/setmixer_flag
/run/bootsplashctl
  • 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
  • lastlog_t
/var/log/lastlog.*
/var/lib/lastlog(/.*)?
  • nova_log_t
/var/log/nova(/.*)?
  • nova_tmp_t

(no default paths listed — she's a whole file type with no committed address, and honestly? relatable 💀)

  • nova_var_lib_t
/var/lib/nova(/.*)?
  • nova_var_run_t
/run/nova(/.*)?
  • root_t
/sysroot/.aleph-version.json
/sysroot/ostree/deploy/.*-atomic/deploy(/.*)?
/
/initrd
/var/lib/ntp
  • security_t
/selinux
  • wtmpdb_journal_t
/var/lib/wtmpdb/wtmp.db-journal

🎀 FILE CONTEXTS 🎀

SELinux requires files to have an extended attribute to define the file type. yes, files have ✨aura✨ and you can read it.

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 nova policy is very flexible, allowing users to setup their nova processes in as secure a method as possible.

🌈 STANDARD FILE CONTEXT 🌈

SELinux defines the file context types for the nova, 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 nova_exec_t '/srv/nova/content(/.*)?'
restorecon -R -v /srv/mynova_content
Note: SELinux often uses regular expressions to specify labels that match multiple files. regex girlies rise 🫶

The following file types are defined for nova:

nova_exec_t

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

Paths:

/usr/bin/nova-console.*, /usr/bin/nova-api, /usr/bin/nova-cert,
/usr/bin/nova-cells, /usr/bin/nova-volume, /usr/bin/nova-network,
/usr/bin/nova-vncproxy, /usr/bin/nova-conductor, /usr/bin/nova-
scheduler, /usr/bin/nova-direct-api, /usr/bin/nova-novncproxy,
/usr/bin/nova-objectstore, /usr/bin/nova-serialproxy,
/usr/bin/nova-xvpvncproxy, /usr/bin/nova-api-metadata,
/usr/bin/nova-ajax-console-proxy

nova_log_t

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

nova_tmp_t

  • Set files with the nova_tmp_t type, if you want to store nova temporary files in the /tmp directories.

nova_unit_file_t

  • Set files with the nova_unit_file_t type, if you want to treat the files as nova unit content.

nova_var_lib_t

  • Set files with the nova_var_lib_t type, if you want to store the nova files under the /var/lib directory.

nova_var_run_t

  • Set files with the nova_var_run_t type, if you want to store the nova 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 vs permanent is the whole plot twist here, don't let chcon gaslight you 😭

🔥 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 clicky girlies 🖱️✨)

👑 AUTHOR 👑

This manual page was auto-generated using sepolicy manpage. (so nobody hand-wrote this, the machine ate and left no crumbs 🤖💅)

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

selinux(8), nova(8), semanage(8), restorecon(8), chcon(1), sepolicy(8), setsebool(8)

go read those next, bestie, you're gonna slay the whole SELinux syllabus 📚✨

that's the whole page! this one's from the nova package, dated 26-10-06, and it's the nova_selinux(8) manual — go forth and label responsibly 💖🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from