24 Jan 2007 How do I turn enforcing SELinux on/off at boot?
You can specify the SELinux mode using the configuration file /etc/sysconfig/selinux.
# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system. # SELINUX= can take one of these three values: # enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced. # permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing. # disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded. SELINUX=enforcing # SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are: # targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected. # strict - Full SELinux protection. SELINUXTYPE=targeted
Setting the value to enforcing is the same as adding enforcing=1 to your command line when booting the kernel to turn enforcing on, while setting the value to permissive is the same as adding enforcing=0 to turn enforcing off. Note that the command line kernel parameter overrides the configuration file.
However, setting the value to disabled is not the same as the selinux=0 kernel boot parameter. Rather than fully disabling SELinux in the kernel, the disabled setting instead turns enforcing off and skips loading a policy.
Source: http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq-fc3/index.html#id2825945
Tags: CentOS, Fedora, RedHat, selinux
Posted by Hans-Henry Jakobsen
22 Jan 2007 How do I make a user public_html directory work under SELinux?
This process presumes that you have enabled user public HTML directories in your Apache configuration file, /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf. This process only covers serving static Web content. For more information about Apache HTTP and SELinux, refer to http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-apache-fc3/.
If you do not already have a ~/public_html directory, create it and populate it with the files and folders to be served.
# cd ~ # mkdir public_html # cp /path/to/content ~/public_html
At this point, httpd is configured to serve the contents, but you still receive a 403 forbidden error. This is because httpd is not allowed to read the security type for the directory and files as they are created in the user’s home directory. Change the security context of the folder and its contents recursively using the -R option:
#ls -Z -d public_html/ drwxrwxr-x auser auser user_u:object_r:user_home_t public_html # chcon -R -t httpd_user_content_t public_html/ # ls -Z -d public_html/ drwxrwxr-x auser auser user_u:object_r:httpd_user_content_t public_html/ # ls -Z public_html/ -rw-rw-r-- auser auser user_u:object_r:httpd_user_content_t bar.html -rw-rw-r-- auser auser user_u:object_r:httpd_user_content_t baz.html -rw-rw-r-- auser auser user_u:object_r:httpd_user_content_t foo.html
You may notice at a later date that the user field, set here to user_u, is changed to system_u. This does not affect how the targeted policy works. The field that matters is the type field.
Your static webpages should now be served correctly. If you continue to have errors, ensure that the Boolean which enables user home directories is enabled. You can set it using system-config-securitylevel. Select the SELinux tab, and then select the Modify SELinux Policy area. Select Allow HTTPD to read home directories. The changes take effect immediately.
Tags: Apache, CentOS, chcon, Fedora, RedHat, selinux
Posted by Hans-Henry Jakobsen
