SELinux is a mandatory access control (MAC) system on Linux which adds a fine-grained permission system for access to all system resources such as files, devices, networks and inter-process communication.
The most important questions are answered briefly in the [FAQ of the SELinux Project](https://selinuxproject.org/page/FAQ). For more details on SELinux and how to actually use and administrate it on your system have a look at [Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 - SELinux User's and Administrator's Guide](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/SELinux_Users_and_Administrators_Guide/index.html). For a simplified (and funny) introduction download the [SELinux Coloring Book](https://github.com/mairin/selinux-coloring-book).
Icinga 2 provides its own SELinux policy. Development target is a policy package for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and derivatives running the targeted policy which confines Icinga 2 with all features and all checks executed. All other distributions will require some tweaks.
There are two ways of installing the SELinux Policy for Icinga 2 on Enterprise Linux 7. The preferred way is to install the package. The other option involves installing the SELinux policy manually which might be necessary if you need some fixes which haven't made their way into a release yet.
This section describes the installation to support development and testing. It assumes that Icinga 2 is already installed from packages and running on the system.
To create and install the policy package run the installation script which also labels the resources. (The script assumes Icinga 2 was started once after system startup, the labeling of the port will only happen once and fail later on.)
# cd tools/selinux/
# ./icinga.sh
After that restart Icinga 2 and verify it running in its own domain `icinga2_t`.
When the SELinux policy package for Icinga 2 is installed, the Icinga 2 daemon (icinga2) runs in its own domain `icinga2_t` and is separated from other confined services.
Files have to be labeled correctly in order for Icinga 2 to be able to access them. For example the Icinga 2 log files have to have the `icinga2_log_t` label. Also the API port is labeled with `icinga_port_t`. Furthermore Icinga 2 can open high ports and UNIX sockets to connect to databases and features like Graphite. It executes the Nagios plugins and transitions to their context if those are labeled for example `nagios_services_plugin_exec_t` or `nagios_system_plugin_exec_t`.
Additionally the Apache web server is allowed to connect to Icinga 2's command pipe in order to allow web interfaces to send commands to icinga2. This will perhaps change later on while investigating Icinga Web 2 for SELinux!
The command pipe is labeled `icinga2_command_t` and other services can request access to it by using the interface `icinga2_send_commands`.
The nagios plugins use their own contexts and icinga2 will transition to it. This means plugins have to be labeled correctly for their required permissions. The plugins installed from package should have set their permissions by the corresponding policy module and you can restore them using `restorecon -R -v /usr/lib64/nagios/plugins/`. To label your own plugins use `chcon -t type /path/to/plugin`, for the type have a look at table below.
Type | Domain | Use case | Provided by policy package
nagios_notification_plugin_exec_t | nagios_notification_plugin_t | Notification commands | icinga (will be moved later)
If one of those plugin domains causes problems you can set it to permissive by executing `semanage permissive -a domain`.
The policy provides a role `icinga2adm_r` for confining an user which enables an administrative user managing only Icinga 2 on the system. This user will also execute the plugins in their domain instead of the users one, so you can verify their execution with the same restrictions like they have when executed by icinga2.
SELinux is based on the least level of access required for a service to run. Using booleans you can grant more access in a defined way. The Icinga 2 policy package provides the following booleans.
Having this boolean enabled allows icinga2 to connect to all ports. This can be necessary if you use features which connect to unconfined services, for example the [influxdb writer](14-features.md#influxdb-writer).
To allow httpd to write to the command pipe of icinga2 this boolean has to be enabled. This is enabled by default, if not needed you can disable it for more security.
Enabling this boolean allows httpd to connect to the API of icinga2 (Ports labeled `icinga2_port_t`). This is enabled by default, if not needed you can disable it for more security.
If problems occur while running the system in enforcing mode and those problems are only caused by the policy of the icinga2 domain, you can set this domain to permissive instead of the complete system. This can be done by executing `semanage permissive -a icinga2_t`.
Make sure to report the bugs in the policy afterwards.
If you want to have an administrative account capable of only managing icinga2 and not the complete system, you can restrict the privileges by confining
this user. This is completly optional!
Start by adding the Icinga 2 administrator role `icinga2adm_r` to the administrative SELinux user `staff_u`.
cat: /var/log/icinga2/icinga2.log: Keine Berechtigung
$ sudo systemctl reload icinga2.service
Failed to get D-Bus connection: No connection to service manager.
Those commands fail because you only switch to root but do not change your SELinux role. Try again but tell sudo also to switch the SELinux role and type.
$ sudo -r icinga2adm_r -t icinga2adm_t id -Z
staff_u:icinga2adm_r:icinga2adm_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023
$ sudo -r icinga2adm_r -t icinga2adm_t vi /etc/icinga2/icinga2.conf
Now try the commands again without providing the role and type and they will work, but if you try to read apache logs or restart apache for example it will still fail.
$ sudo cat /var/log/httpd/error_log
/bin/cat: /var/log/httpd/error_log: Keine Berechtigung
If you experience any problems while running in enforcing mode try to reproduce it in permissive mode. If the problem persists it is not related to SELinux because in permissive mode SELinux will not deny anything.
After some feedback Icinga 2 is now running in a enforced domain, but still adds also some rules for other necessary services so no problems should occure at all. But you can help to enhance the policy by testing Icinga 2 running confined by SELinux.
* Output of `audit2allow -li /var/log/audit/audit.log`
If access to a file is blocked and you can tell which one please provided the output of `ls -lZ /path/to/file` (and perhaps the directory above).
If asked for full audit.log add `-w /etc/shadow -p w` to `/etc/audit/rules.d/audit.rules`, restart the audit daemon, reproduce the problem and add `/var/log/audit/audit.log` to the bug report. With the added audit rule it will include the path of files access was denied to.
If asked to provide full audit log with dontaudit rules disabled executed `semodule -DB` before reproducing the problem. After that enable the rules again to prevent auditd spamming your logfile by executing `semodule -B`.
