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authorPaul Moore <paul.moore@hp.com>2006-08-03 16:45:49 -0700
committerDavid S. Miller <davem@sunset.davemloft.net>2006-09-22 14:53:31 -0700
commit8802f616f6de8576805f32e47602816f141118f2 (patch)
tree0763c745b3b09ebb085b7d8625447e284a5650de /Documentation/netlabel/introduction.txt
parenta51c64f1e5c2876eab2a32955acd9e8015c91c15 (diff)
[NetLabel]: documentation
Documentation for the NetLabel system, this includes a basic overview of how NetLabel works, how LSM developers can integrate it into their favorite LSM, as well as documentation on the CIPSO related sysctl variables. Also, due to the difficulty of finding expired IETF drafts, I am including the IETF CIPSO draft that is the basis of the NetLabel CIPSO implementation. Signed-off-by: Paul Moore <paul.moore@hp.com> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
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+NetLabel Introduction
+==============================================================================
+Paul Moore, paul.moore@hp.com
+
+August 2, 2006
+
+ * Overview
+
+NetLabel is a mechanism which can be used by kernel security modules to attach
+security attributes to outgoing network packets generated from user space
+applications and read security attributes from incoming network packets. It
+is composed of three main components, the protocol engines, the communication
+layer, and the kernel security module API.
+
+ * Protocol Engines
+
+The protocol engines are responsible for both applying and retrieving the
+network packet's security attributes. If any translation between the network
+security attributes and those on the host are required then the protocol
+engine will handle those tasks as well. Other kernel subsystems should
+refrain from calling the protocol engines directly, instead they should use
+the NetLabel kernel security module API described below.
+
+Detailed information about each NetLabel protocol engine can be found in this
+directory, consult '00-INDEX' for filenames.
+
+ * Communication Layer
+
+The communication layer exists to allow NetLabel configuration and monitoring
+from user space. The NetLabel communication layer uses a message based
+protocol built on top of the Generic NETLINK transport mechanism. The exact
+formatting of these NetLabel messages as well as the Generic NETLINK family
+names can be found in the the 'net/netlabel/' directory as comments in the
+header files as well as in 'include/net/netlabel.h'.
+
+ * Security Module API
+
+The purpose of the NetLabel security module API is to provide a protocol
+independent interface to the underlying NetLabel protocol engines. In addition
+to protocol independence, the security module API is designed to be completely
+LSM independent which should allow multiple LSMs to leverage the same code
+base.
+
+Detailed information about the NetLabel security module API can be found in the
+'include/net/netlabel.h' header file as well as the 'lsm_interface.txt' file
+found in this directory.