watchdog_selinux(8)

🐶✨ watchdog_selinux(8) — the SELinux watchdog page, bestie edition ✨🐶

okay so this is watchdog_selinux(8), and we’re about to make SELinux watchdog policy make sense. no cap, it’s giving “security but make it understandable.” 🫶

💖 NAME 💖

watchdog_selinux — Security Enhanced Linux Policy for the watchdog processes

🛡️ DESCRIPTION 🛡️

Security-Enhanced Linux secures the watchdog processes via flexible mandatory access control. literally the whole vibe is “keep watchdog on a leash, but a very customizable leash.” 💅

The watchdog processes execute with the watchdog_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 watchdog_t

🚪 ENTRYPOINTS 🚪

The watchdog_t SELinux type can be entered via the watchdog_exec_t file type.

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

/usr/bin/watchdog

👑 PROCESS TYPES 👑

SELinux defines process types (domains) for each process running on the system.

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

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

The following process types are defined for watchdog:

watchdog_t, watchdog_unconfined_t

Note: semanage permissive -a watchdog_t can be used to make the process type watchdog_t permissive. SELinux does not deny access to permissive process types, but the AVC (SELinux denials) messages are still generated. so yeah, permissive is not “invisible mode,” bestie 😭

🎀 BOOLEANS 🎀

SELinux policy is customizable based on least access required. watchdog policy is extremely flexible and has several booleans that allow you to manipulate the policy and run watchdog with the tightest access possible.

• daemons_dontaudit_scheduling — if you want to dontaudit all daemons scheduling requests (setsched, sys_nice), you must turn on this boolean. Enabled by default.

setsebool -P daemons_dontaudit_scheduling 1

• fips_mode — if you want to allow all domains to execute in fips_mode, you must turn on this boolean. Enabled by default.

setsebool -P fips_mode 1

• nis_enabled — if you want to allow system to run with NIS, you must turn on this boolean. Disabled by default.

setsebool -P nis_enabled 1

• nscd_use_shm — if you want to allow confined applications to use nscd shared memory, you must turn on this boolean. Enabled by default.

setsebool -P nscd_use_shm 1

🗂️ MANAGED FILES 🗂️

The SELinux process type watchdog_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, bestie — SELinux is not out here replacing regular permissions. 🙈

• 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

• root_t

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

• watchdog_cache_t

/var/cache/watchdog(/.*)?

• watchdog_log_t

/var/log/watchdog.*

• watchdog_var_run_t

/run/watchdog.pid

• wtmpdb_journal_t

/var/lib/wtmpdb/wtmp.db-journal

• wtmpdb_t

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

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

✨ STANDARD FILE CONTEXT ✨

SELinux defines the file context types for the watchdog, so if you wanted to store files with these types in 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 watchdog_exec_t '/srv/watchdog/content(/.*)?'
restorecon -R -v /srv/mywatchdog_content

Note: SELinux often uses regular expressions to specify labels that match multiple files. regex girlies rise 💅

The following file types are defined for watchdog:

• watchdog_cache_t — Set files with the watchdog_cache_t type, if you want to store the files under the /var/cache directory.
• watchdog_exec_t — Set files with the watchdog_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the watchdog_t domain.
• watchdog_initrc_exec_t — Set files with the watchdog_initrc_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the watchdog_initrc_t domain.
• watchdog_log_t — Set files with the watchdog_log_t type, if you want to treat the data as watchdog log data, usually stored under the /var/log directory.
• watchdog_unconfined_exec_t — Set files with the watchdog_unconfined_exec_t type, if you want to transition an executable to the watchdog_unconfined_t domain. Paths: /etc/watchdog.d(/.*)?, /usr/libexec/watchdog/scripts(/.*)?
• watchdog_var_run_t — Set files with the watchdog_var_run_t type, if you want to store the watchdog 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 quick little touch-up, and semanage fcontext + restorecon is the permanent glow-up ✨

🧚 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.

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

This manual page was auto-generated using sepolicy manpage.

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

selinux(8), watchdog(8), semanage(8), restorecon(8), chcon(1), sepolicy(8), setsebool(8), watchdog_unconfined_selinux(8), watchdog_unconfined_selinux(8)

---

source/version: watchdog · date: 26-10-06 · manual: watchdog_selinux(8) — k bye bestie, go check those contexts 💅✨