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+===================================
+NetLabel CIPSO/IPv4 Protocol Engine
+===================================
+
+Paul Moore, paul.moore@hp.com
+
+May 17, 2006
+
+Overview
+========
+
+The NetLabel CIPSO/IPv4 protocol engine is based on the IETF Commercial
+IP Security Option (CIPSO) draft from July 16, 1992. A copy of this
+draft can be found in this directory
+(draft-ietf-cipso-ipsecurity-01.txt). While the IETF draft never made
+it to an RFC standard it has become a de-facto standard for labeled
+networking and is used in many trusted operating systems.
+
+Outbound Packet Processing
+==========================
+
+The CIPSO/IPv4 protocol engine applies the CIPSO IP option to packets by
+adding the CIPSO label to the socket. This causes all packets leaving the
+system through the socket to have the CIPSO IP option applied. The socket's
+CIPSO label can be changed at any point in time, however, it is recommended
+that it is set upon the socket's creation. The LSM can set the socket's CIPSO
+label by using the NetLabel security module API; if the NetLabel "domain" is
+configured to use CIPSO for packet labeling then a CIPSO IP option will be
+generated and attached to the socket.
+
+Inbound Packet Processing
+=========================
+
+The CIPSO/IPv4 protocol engine validates every CIPSO IP option it finds at the
+IP layer without any special handling required by the LSM. However, in order
+to decode and translate the CIPSO label on the packet the LSM must use the
+NetLabel security module API to extract the security attributes of the packet.
+This is typically done at the socket layer using the 'socket_sock_rcv_skb()'
+LSM hook.
+
+Label Translation
+=================
+
+The CIPSO/IPv4 protocol engine contains a mechanism to translate CIPSO security
+attributes such as sensitivity level and category to values which are
+appropriate for the host. These mappings are defined as part of a CIPSO
+Domain Of Interpretation (DOI) definition and are configured through the
+NetLabel user space communication layer. Each DOI definition can have a
+different security attribute mapping table.
+
+Label Translation Cache
+=======================
+
+The NetLabel system provides a framework for caching security attribute
+mappings from the network labels to the corresponding LSM identifiers. The
+CIPSO/IPv4 protocol engine supports this caching mechanism.