summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/security/IMA-templates.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/security/IMA-templates.rst111
1 files changed, 111 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.rst b/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..15b4add314
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+=================================
+IMA Template Management Mechanism
+=================================
+
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+The original ``ima`` template is fixed length, containing the filedata hash
+and pathname. The filedata hash is limited to 20 bytes (md5/sha1).
+The pathname is a null terminated string, limited to 255 characters.
+To overcome these limitations and to add additional file metadata, it is
+necessary to extend the current version of IMA by defining additional
+templates. For example, information that could be possibly reported are
+the inode UID/GID or the LSM labels either of the inode and of the process
+that is accessing it.
+
+However, the main problem to introduce this feature is that, each time
+a new template is defined, the functions that generate and display
+the measurements list would include the code for handling a new format
+and, thus, would significantly grow over the time.
+
+The proposed solution solves this problem by separating the template
+management from the remaining IMA code. The core of this solution is the
+definition of two new data structures: a template descriptor, to determine
+which information should be included in the measurement list; a template
+field, to generate and display data of a given type.
+
+Managing templates with these structures is very simple. To support
+a new data type, developers define the field identifier and implement
+two functions, init() and show(), respectively to generate and display
+measurement entries. Defining a new template descriptor requires
+specifying the template format (a string of field identifiers separated
+by the ``|`` character) through the ``ima_template_fmt`` kernel command line
+parameter. At boot time, IMA initializes the chosen template descriptor
+by translating the format into an array of template fields structures taken
+from the set of the supported ones.
+
+After the initialization step, IMA will call ``ima_alloc_init_template()``
+(new function defined within the patches for the new template management
+mechanism) to generate a new measurement entry by using the template
+descriptor chosen through the kernel configuration or through the newly
+introduced ``ima_template`` and ``ima_template_fmt`` kernel command line parameters.
+It is during this phase that the advantages of the new architecture are
+clearly shown: the latter function will not contain specific code to handle
+a given template but, instead, it simply calls the ``init()`` method of the template
+fields associated to the chosen template descriptor and store the result
+(pointer to allocated data and data length) in the measurement entry structure.
+
+The same mechanism is employed to display measurements entries.
+The functions ``ima[_ascii]_measurements_show()`` retrieve, for each entry,
+the template descriptor used to produce that entry and call the show()
+method for each item of the array of template fields structures.
+
+
+
+Supported Template Fields and Descriptors
+=========================================
+
+In the following, there is the list of supported template fields
+``('<identifier>': description)``, that can be used to define new template
+descriptors by adding their identifier to the format string
+(support for more data types will be added later):
+
+ - 'd': the digest of the event (i.e. the digest of a measured file),
+ calculated with the SHA1 or MD5 hash algorithm;
+ - 'n': the name of the event (i.e. the file name), with size up to 255 bytes;
+ - 'd-ng': the digest of the event, calculated with an arbitrary hash
+ algorithm (field format: <hash algo>:digest);
+ - 'd-ngv2': same as d-ng, but prefixed with the "ima" or "verity" digest type
+ (field format: <digest type>:<hash algo>:digest);
+ - 'd-modsig': the digest of the event without the appended modsig;
+ - 'n-ng': the name of the event, without size limitations;
+ - 'sig': the file signature, based on either the file's/fsverity's digest[1],
+ or the EVM portable signature, if 'security.ima' contains a file hash.
+ - 'modsig' the appended file signature;
+ - 'buf': the buffer data that was used to generate the hash without size limitations;
+ - 'evmsig': the EVM portable signature;
+ - 'iuid': the inode UID;
+ - 'igid': the inode GID;
+ - 'imode': the inode mode;
+ - 'xattrnames': a list of xattr names (separated by ``|``), only if the xattr is
+ present;
+ - 'xattrlengths': a list of xattr lengths (u32), only if the xattr is present;
+ - 'xattrvalues': a list of xattr values;
+
+
+Below, there is the list of defined template descriptors:
+
+ - "ima": its format is ``d|n``;
+ - "ima-ng" (default): its format is ``d-ng|n-ng``;
+ - "ima-ngv2": its format is ``d-ngv2|n-ng``;
+ - "ima-sig": its format is ``d-ng|n-ng|sig``;
+ - "ima-sigv2": its format is ``d-ngv2|n-ng|sig``;
+ - "ima-buf": its format is ``d-ng|n-ng|buf``;
+ - "ima-modsig": its format is ``d-ng|n-ng|sig|d-modsig|modsig``;
+ - "evm-sig": its format is ``d-ng|n-ng|evmsig|xattrnames|xattrlengths|xattrvalues|iuid|igid|imode``;
+
+
+Use
+===
+
+To specify the template descriptor to be used to generate measurement entries,
+currently the following methods are supported:
+
+ - select a template descriptor among those supported in the kernel
+ configuration (``ima-ng`` is the default choice);
+ - specify a template descriptor name from the kernel command line through
+ the ``ima_template=`` parameter;
+ - register a new template descriptor with custom format through the kernel
+ command line parameter ``ima_template_fmt=``.