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From: sunil <sunil_at_liqwidkrystal.com>
subject: Question about SELinux
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 17:57:53 +0530

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Hello,

We have the following server requirement:

1. Untrusted users can login into the system and run programs that they have written in a variety of programming languages ranging from Java to C++, Ruby, Python, etc. These programs would typically be small in size, written by people who are learning these technologies. But they could be of all types: Socket programs, UI programs, text-mode programs, etc.
2. The users should be able to run only well-behaved programs on the server. A well-behaved program would be one that uses reasonable amounts of CPU, disk, network and memory resources and does not try to compromise the security of the system. Therefore, malicious programs of any kind should be quietly terminated.
3. All of this should be possible with minimal overhead incurred from any monitoring infrastructure.

Can I achieve this using SELinux?

Thanks & regards,

Sunil Arvindam

---

Sunil Arvindam
Chief Architect,
Liqwid Krystal,
Pearl House, 9/3 Museum Road,
Bangalore-560001,
India.
Ph: (91) 80-5091789
Fax:(91) 80-5091794
email:sunil@liqwidkrystal.com

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From: Stephen Smalley <sds_at_tislabs.com>
subject: Re: Question about SELinux
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 09:07:55 -0400 (EDT)

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On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, sunil wrote:

> 2. The users should be able to run only well-behaved programs on the server.
> A well-behaved program would be one that uses reasonable amounts of
> CPU,
> disk, network and memory resources and does not try to compromise the
> security of the system.
> Therefore, malicious programs of any kind should be quietly terminated.

SELinux provides flexible and fine-grained nondiscretionary access controls, so you can use it to provide separation and confinement of these untrusted users and their programs. However, SELinux does not currently provide any additional controls over resource usage beyond what is already present in Linux. Also, the SELinux access controls don't terminate processes that violate the policy - they merely deny access and optionally audit such access denials. Of course, this may yield the same effect in many cases, since many programs simply exit upon error.

--
Stephen D. Smalley, NAI Labs
ssmalley@nai.com




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