pulseaudio_selinux(8)

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

💅 pulseaudio_selinux(8) — the pulseaudio SELinux policy, explained by your fav Unix bestie

okay so this is pulseaudio_selinux, and it lives in section 8 of the manual (that's the sysadmin-stuff section, iykyk). it's all about the SELinux policy for your pulseaudio processes. grab a strawberry drink 🍓 and let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

pulseaudio_selinux — the Security Enhanced Linux Policy for the pulseaudio processes. that's it, that's the vibe. 🎀

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Security-Enhanced Linux secures the pulseaudio processes via flexible mandatory access control. mandatory access control is literally the main character here — it doesn't ask permission, it is the permission. 👑

The pulseaudio processes execute with the pulseaudio_t SELinux type. you can check if you have these processes running by executing the ps command with the -Z qualifier. so cute, so simple.

For example:

ps -eZ | grep pulseaudio_t

that's it. that's the whole vibe check. 🦋

🚪 ENTRYPOINTS 🚪

The pulseaudio_t SELinux type can be entered via the pulseaudio_exec_t file type.

The default entrypoint paths for the pulseaudio_t domain are the following — like, these are the doors it walks through:

/usr/bin/pulseaudio

one door. iconic. 💅

🧚 PROCESS TYPES 🧚

SELinux defines process types (domains) for each process running on the system. yes, every process gets its own little domain. main character energy for everyone. ✨

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

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

The following process types are defined for pulseaudio:

  • pulseaudio_t
Note: semanage permissive -a pulseaudio_t can be used to make the process type pulseaudio_t permissive. SELinux does not deny access to permissive process types, but the AVC (SELinux denials) messages are still generated. so like, it stops blocking stuff but it still talks about it. lowkey nosy. 🙈

🎚️ BOOLEANS 🎚️

SELinux policy is customizable based on least access required. pulseaudio policy is extremely flexible and has several booleans that allow you to manipulate the policy and run pulseaudio with the tightest access possible. booleans are basically the on/off switches of the policy world and honestly? obsessed. 🔥

If you want to deny all system processes and Linux users to use bluetooth wireless technology, you must turn on the deny_bluetooth boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P deny_bluetooth 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 system to run with NIS, you must turn on the nis_enabled boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P nis_enabled 1

If you want to allow regular users direct dri device access, you must turn on the selinuxuser_direct_dri_enabled boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P selinuxuser_direct_dri_enabled 1

If you want to support NFS home directories, you must turn on the use_nfs_home_dirs boolean. Enabled by default.

setsebool -P use_nfs_home_dirs 1

If you want to support SAMBA home directories, you must turn on the use_samba_home_dirs boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P use_samba_home_dirs 1

If you want to allows clients to write to the X server shared memory segments, you must turn on the xserver_clients_write_xshm boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P xserver_clients_write_xshm 1

seven booleans. all accounted for. no cap. 💜

🔌 PORT TYPES 🔌

SELinux defines port types to represent TCP and UDP ports.

You can see the types associated with a port by using the following command:

semanage port -l

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

The following port types are defined for pulseaudio:

  • pulseaudio_port_t

Default Defined Ports:

          tcp 4713
          udp 4713

4713, tcp and udp. she's versatile. 🌈

📁 MANAGED FILES 📁

The SELinux process type pulseaudio_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, SELinux doesn't do everything for you, bestie. DAC still has a say. 💀)

cifs_t

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

pulseaudio_var_lib_t

     /var/lib/pulse(/.*)?

pulseaudio_var_run_t

     /run/pulse(/.*)?

user_tmp_type

  • all user tmp files

virt_tmpfs_type

that's a whole lotta file types and honestly the krb5_host_rcache_t list ate. 🍓

🏷️ FILE CONTEXTS 🏷️

SELinux requires files to have an extended attribute to define the file type.

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

⭐ STANDARD FILE CONTEXT ⭐

SELinux defines the file context types for the pulseaudio, 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 pulseaudio_exec_t
'/srv/pulseaudio/content(/.*)?'
restorecon -R -v /srv/mypulseaudio_content
Note: SELinux often uses regular expressions to specify labels that match multiple files. regex everywhere, it's giving very "i know what you did last summer" but for filenames. 🔍

The following file types are defined for pulseaudio:

🎀 pulseaudio_exec_t

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

🎀 pulseaudio_home_t

  • Set files with the pulseaudio_home_t type, if you want to store pulseaudio files in the users home directory.

Paths:

     /root/.pulse(/.*)?, /root/.config/pulse(/.*)?, /root/.esd_auth,
     /root/.pulse-cookie, /home/[^/]+/.pulse(/.*)?,
     /home/[^/]+/.config/pulse(/.*)?, /home/[^/]+/.esd_auth,
     /home/[^/]+/.pulse-cookie

🎀 pulseaudio_tmpfs_t

  • Set files with the pulseaudio_tmpfs_t type, if you want to store pulseaudio files on a tmpfs file system.

🎀 pulseaudio_var_lib_t

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

🎀 pulseaudio_var_run_t

  • Set files with the pulseaudio_var_run_t type, if you want to store the pulseaudio 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. so like, chcon is the temporary tattoo and semanage fcontext + restorecon is the real permanent ink. choose wisely. 💅

🛠️ 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 port can also be used to manipulate the port definitions.

semanage boolean can also be used to manipulate the booleans.

system-config-selinux is a GUI tool available to customize SELinux policy settings. a whole GUI! for the girlies who prefer clicking. 🖱️✨

💖 AUTHOR 💖

This manual page was auto-generated using sepolicy manpage .

(the machine wrote it, not a human. we stan an automated queen. 👑)

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

and that's the whole page, bestie! this beauty came from the pulseaudio source, dated 26-10-06, and yes it's pulseaudio_selinux(8) — now go forth and label your files correctly. slay. 🫶🌸💜

📦 where this page comes from