From: Deven Bowers <deven.desai@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Add IPE's admin and developer documentation to the kernel tree.
Co-developed-by: Fan Wu <wufan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Deven Bowers <deven.desai@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Fan Wu <wufan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
v2:
+ No Changes
v3:
+ Add Acked-by
+ Fixup code block syntax
+ Fix a minor grammatical issue.
v4:
+ Update documentation with the results of other
code changes.
v5:
+ No changes
v6:
+ No changes
v7:
+ Add additional developer-level documentation
+ Update admin-guide docs to reflect changes.
+ Drop Acked-by due to significant changes
+ Added section about audit events in admin-guide
v8:
+ Correct terminology from "audit event" to "audit record"
+ Add associated documentation with the correct "audit event"
terminology.
+ Add some context to the historical motivation for IPE and design
philosophy.
+ Add some content about the securityfs layout in the policies
directory.
+ Various spelling and grammatical corrections.
v9:
+ Correct spelling of "pitfalls"
+ Update the docs w.r.t the new parser and new audit formats
v10:
+ Refine user docs per upstream suggestions
+ Update audit events part
v11:
+ No changes
v12:
+ Update audit formats
+ Update initramfs related docs
+ Add test suite link
v13:
+ No changes
v14:
+ No changes
v15:
+ Update boot_verified part
+ Fix format issues
+ Add IPE doc link to fsverity.rst
v16:
+ Explicitly mention fsverity builtin signature
v17:
+ Rewrite many parts of Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst
+ Fix incorrect path name of policyfs interfaces
v18:
+ Improve policy examples
+ Remove insecure hash algorithms and adapt the documentation
accordingly
+ Update the documentation regarding the new Kconfig switches
---
Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst | 792 ++++++++++++++++++
.../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 12 +
Documentation/filesystems/fsverity.rst | 5 +-
Documentation/security/index.rst | 1 +
Documentation/security/ipe.rst | 446 ++++++++++
6 files changed, 1256 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
create mode 100644 Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst
create mode 100644 Documentation/security/ipe.rst
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/index.rst
index a6ba95fbaa9f..ce63be6d64ad 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/index.rst
@@ -47,3 +47,4 @@ subdirectories.
tomoyo
Yama
SafeSetID
+ ipe
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1a3bf1d8aa23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,792 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+Integrity Policy Enforcement (IPE)
+==================================
+
+.. NOTE::
+
+ This is the documentation for admins, system builders, or individuals
+ attempting to use IPE. If you're looking for more developer-focused
+ documentation about IPE please see Documentation/security/ipe.rst
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+Integrity Policy Enforcement (IPE) is a Linux Security Module that takes a
+complementary approach to access control. Unlike traditional access control
+mechanisms that rely on labels and paths for decision-making, IPE focuses
+on the immutable security properties inherent to system components. These
+properties are fundamental attributes or features of a system component
+that cannot be altered, ensuring a consistent and reliable basis for
+security decisions.
+
+To elaborate, in the context of IPE, system components primarily refer to
+files or the devices these files reside on. However, this is just a
+starting point. The concept of system components is flexible and can be
+extended to include new elements as the system evolves. The immutable
+properties include the origin of a file, which remains constant and
+unchangeable over time. For example, IPE policies can be crafted to trust
+files originating from the initramfs. Since initramfs is typically verified
+by the bootloader, its files are deemed trustworthy; "file is from
+initramfs" becomes an immutable property under IPE's consideration.
+
+The immutable property concept extends to the security features enabled on
+a file's origin, such as dm-verity or fs-verity, which provide a layer of
+integrity and trust. For example, IPE allows the definition of policies
+that trust files from a dm-verity protected device. dm-verity ensures the
+integrity of an entire device by providing a verifiable and immutable state
+of its contents. Similarly, fs-verity offers filesystem-level integrity
+checks, allowing IPE to enforce policies that trust files protected by
+fs-verity. These two features cannot be turned off once established, so
+they are considered immutable properties. These examples demonstrate how
+IPE leverages immutable properties, such as a file's origin and its
+integrity protection mechanisms, to make access control decisions.
+
+For the IPE policy, specifically, it grants the ability to enforce
+stringent access controls by assessing security properties against
+reference values defined within the policy. This assessment can be based on
+the existence of a security property (e.g., verifying if a file originates
+from initramfs) or evaluating the internal state of an immutable security
+property. The latter includes checking the roothash of a dm-verity
+protected device, determining whether dm-verity possesses a valid
+signature, assessing the digest of a fs-verity protected file, or
+determining whether fs-verity possesses a valid built-in signature. This
+nuanced approach to policy enforcement enables a highly secure and
+customizable system defense mechanism, tailored to specific security
+requirements and trust models.
+
+To enable IPE, ensure that ``CONFIG_SECURITY_IPE`` (under
+:menuselection:`Security -> Integrity Policy Enforcement (IPE)`) config
+option is enabled.
+
+Use Cases
+---------
+
+IPE works best in fixed-function devices: devices in which their purpose
+is clearly defined and not supposed to be changed (e.g. network firewall
+device in a data center, an IoT device, etcetera), where all software and
+configuration is built and provisioned by the system owner.
+
+IPE is a long-way off for use in general-purpose computing: the Linux
+community as a whole tends to follow a decentralized trust model (known as
+the web of trust), which IPE has no support for it yet. Instead, IPE
+supports PKI (public key infrastructure), which generally designates a
+set of trusted entities that provide a measure of absolute trust.
+
+Additionally, while most packages are signed today, the files inside
+the packages (for instance, the executables), tend to be unsigned. This
+makes it difficult to utilize IPE in systems where a package manager is
+expected to be functional, without major changes to the package manager
+and ecosystem behind it.
+
+The digest_cache LSM [#digest_cache_lsm]_ is a system that when combined with IPE,
+could be used to enable and support general-purpose computing use cases.
+
+Known Limitations
+-----------------
+
+IPE cannot verify the integrity of anonymous executable memory, such as
+the trampolines created by gcc closures and libffi (<3.4.2), or JIT'd code.
+Unfortunately, as this is dynamically generated code, there is no way
+for IPE to ensure the integrity of this code to form a trust basis. In all
+cases, the return result for these operations will be whatever the admin
+configures as the ``DEFAULT`` action for ``EXECUTE``.
+
+IPE cannot verify the integrity of programs written in interpreted
+languages when these scripts are invoked by passing these program files
+to the interpreter. This is because the way interpreters execute these
+files; the scripts themselves are not evaluated as executable code
+through one of IPE's hooks, but they are merely text files that are read
+(as opposed to compiled executables) [#interpreters]_.
+
+Threat Model
+------------
+
+IPE specifically targets the risk of tampering with user-space executable
+code after the kernel has initially booted, including the kernel modules
+loaded from userspace via ``modprobe`` or ``insmod``.
+
+To illustrate, consider a scenario where an untrusted binary, possibly
+malicious, is downloaded along with all necessary dependencies, including a
+loader and libc. The primary function of IPE in this context is to prevent
+the execution of such binaries and their dependencies.
+
+IPE achieves this by verifying the integrity and authenticity of all
+executable code before allowing them to run. It conducts a thorough
+check to ensure that the code's integrity is intact and that they match an
+authorized reference value (digest, signature, etc) as per the defined
+policy. If a binary does not pass this verification process, either
+because its integrity has been compromised or it does not meet the
+authorization criteria, IPE will deny its execution. Additionally, IPE
+generates audit logs which may be utilized to detect and analyze failures
+resulting from policy violation.
+
+Tampering threat scenarios include modification or replacement of
+executable code by a range of actors including:
+
+- Actors with physical access to the hardware
+- Actors with local network access to the system
+- Actors with access to the deployment system
+- Compromised internal systems under external control
+- Malicious end users of the system
+- Compromised end users of the system
+- Remote (external) compromise of the system
+
+IPE does not mitigate threats arising from malicious but authorized
+developers (with access to a signing certificate), or compromised
+developer tools used by them (i.e. return-oriented programming attacks).
+Additionally, IPE draws hard security boundary between userspace and
+kernelspace. As a result, IPE does not provide any protections against a
+kernel level exploit, and a kernel-level exploit can disable or tamper
+with IPE's protections.
+
+Policy
+------
+
+IPE policy is a plain-text [#devdoc]_ policy composed of multiple statements
+over several lines. There is one required line, at the top of the
+policy, indicating the policy name, and the policy version, for
+instance::
+
+ policy_name=Ex_Policy policy_version=0.0.0
+
+The policy name is a unique key identifying this policy in a human
+readable name. This is used to create nodes under securityfs as well as
+uniquely identify policies to deploy new policies vs update existing
+policies.
+
+The policy version indicates the current version of the policy (NOT the
+policy syntax version). This is used to prevent rollback of policy to
+potentially insecure previous versions of the policy.
+
+The next portion of IPE policy are rules. Rules are formed by key=value
+pairs, known as properties. IPE rules require two properties: ``action``,
+which determines what IPE does when it encounters a match against the
+rule, and ``op``, which determines when the rule should be evaluated.
+The ordering is significant, a rule must start with ``op``, and end with
+``action``. Thus, a minimal rule is::
+
+ op=EXECUTE action=ALLOW
+
+This example will allow any execution. Additional properties are used to
+assess immutable security properties about the files being evaluated.
+These properties are intended to be descriptions of systems within the
+kernel that can provide a measure of integrity verification, such that IPE
+can determine the trust of the resource based on the value of the property.
+
+Rules are evaluated top-to-bottom. As a result, any revocation rules,
+or denies should be placed early in the file to ensure that these rules
+are evaluated before a rule with ``action=ALLOW``.
+
+IPE policy supports comments. The character '#' will function as a
+comment, ignoring all characters to the right of '#' until the newline.
+
+The default behavior of IPE evaluations can also be expressed in policy,
+through the ``DEFAULT`` statement. This can be done at a global level,
+or a per-operation level::
+
+ # Global
+ DEFAULT action=ALLOW
+
+ # Operation Specific
+ DEFAULT op=EXECUTE action=ALLOW
+
+A default must be set for all known operations in IPE. If you want to
+preserve older policies being compatible with newer kernels that can introduce
+new operations, set a global default of ``ALLOW``, then override the
+defaults on a per-operation basis (as above).
+
+With configurable policy-based LSMs, there's several issues with
+enforcing the configurable policies at startup, around reading and
+parsing the policy:
+
+1. The kernel *should* not read files from userspace, so directly reading
+ the policy file is prohibited.
+2. The kernel command line has a character limit, and one kernel module
+ should not reserve the entire character limit for its own
+ configuration.
+3. There are various boot loaders in the kernel ecosystem, so handing
+ off a memory block would be costly to maintain.
+
+As a result, IPE has addressed this problem through a concept of a "boot
+policy". A boot policy is a minimal policy which is compiled into the
+kernel. This policy is intended to get the system to a state where
+userspace is set up and ready to receive commands, at which point a more
+complex policy can be deployed via securityfs. The boot policy can be
+specified via ``SECURITY_IPE_BOOT_POLICY`` config option, which accepts
+a path to a plain-text version of the IPE policy to apply. This policy
+will be compiled into the kernel. If not specified, IPE will be disabled
+until a policy is deployed and activated through securityfs.
+
+Deploying Policies
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Policies can be deployed from userspace through securityfs. These policies
+are signed through the PKCS#7 message format to enforce some level of
+authorization of the policies (prohibiting an attacker from gaining
+unconstrained root, and deploying an "allow all" policy). These
+policies must be signed by a certificate that chains to the
+``SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYRING``. With openssl, the policy can be signed by::
+
+ openssl smime -sign \
+ -in "$MY_POLICY" \
+ -signer "$MY_CERTIFICATE" \
+ -inkey "$MY_PRIVATE_KEY" \
+ -noattr \
+ -nodetach \
+ -nosmimecap \
+ -outform der \
+ -out "$MY_POLICY.p7b"
+
+Deploying the policies is done through securityfs, through the
+``new_policy`` node. To deploy a policy, simply cat the file into the
+securityfs node::
+
+ cat "$MY_POLICY.p7b" > /sys/kernel/security/ipe/new_policy
+
+Upon success, this will create one subdirectory under
+``/sys/kernel/security/ipe/policies/``. The subdirectory will be the
+``policy_name`` field of the policy deployed, so for the example above,
+the directory will be ``/sys/kernel/security/ipe/policies/Ex_Policy``.
+Within this directory, there will be seven files: ``pkcs7``, ``policy``,
+``name``, ``version``, ``active``, ``update``, and ``delete``.
+
+The ``pkcs7`` file is read-only. Reading it returns the raw PKCS#7 data
+that was provided to the kernel, representing the policy. If the policy being
+read is the boot policy, this will return ``ENOENT``, as it is not signed.
+
+The ``policy`` file is read only. Reading it returns the PKCS#7 inner
+content of the policy, which will be the plain text policy.
+
+The ``active`` file is used to set a policy as the currently active policy.
+This file is rw, and accepts a value of ``"1"`` to set the policy as active.
+Since only a single policy can be active at one time, all other policies
+will be marked inactive. The policy being marked active must have a policy
+version greater or equal to the currently-running version.
+
+The ``update`` file is used to update a policy that is already present
+in the kernel. This file is write-only and accepts a PKCS#7 signed
+policy. Two checks will always be performed on this policy: First, the
+``policy_names`` must match with the updated version and the existing
+version. Second the updated policy must have a policy version greater than
+or equal to the currently-running version. This is to prevent rollback attacks.
+
+The ``delete`` file is used to remove a policy that is no longer needed.
+This file is write-only and accepts a value of ``1`` to delete the policy.
+On deletion, the securityfs node representing the policy will be removed.
+However, delete the current active policy is not allowed and will return
+an operation not permitted error.
+
+Similarly, writing to both ``update`` and ``new_policy`` could result in
+bad message(policy syntax error) or file exists error. The latter error happens
+when trying to deploy a policy with a ``policy_name`` while the kernel already
+has a deployed policy with the same ``policy_name``.
+
+Deploying a policy will *not* cause IPE to start enforcing the policy. IPE will
+only enforce the policy marked active. Note that only one policy can be active
+at a time.
+
+Once deployment is successful, the policy can be activated, by writing file
+``/sys/kernel/security/ipe/policies/$policy_name/active``.
+For example, the ``Ex_Policy`` can be activated by::
+
+ echo 1 > "/sys/kernel/security/ipe/policies/Ex_Policy/active"
+
+From above point on, ``Ex_Policy`` is now the enforced policy on the
+system.
+
+IPE also provides a way to delete policies. This can be done via the
+``delete`` securityfs node,
+``/sys/kernel/security/ipe/policies/$policy_name/delete``.
+Writing ``1`` to that file deletes the policy::
+
+ echo 1 > "/sys/kernel/security/ipe/policies/$policy_name/delete"
+
+There is only one requirement to delete a policy: the policy being deleted
+must be inactive.
+
+.. NOTE::
+
+ If a traditional MAC system is enabled (SELinux, apparmor, smack), all
+ writes to ipe's securityfs nodes require ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN``.
+
+Modes
+~~~~~
+
+IPE supports two modes of operation: permissive (similar to SELinux's
+permissive mode) and enforced. In permissive mode, all events are
+checked and policy violations are logged, but the policy is not really
+enforced. This allows users to test policies before enforcing them.
+
+The default mode is enforce, and can be changed via the kernel command
+line parameter ``ipe.enforce=(0|1)``, or the securityfs node
+``/sys/kernel/security/ipe/enforce``.
+
+.. NOTE::
+
+ If a traditional MAC system is enabled (SELinux, apparmor, smack, etcetera),
+ all writes to ipe's securityfs nodes require ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN``.
+
+Audit Events
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+1420 AUDIT_IPE_ACCESS
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+Event Examples::
+
+ type=1420 audit(1653364370.067:61): ipe_op=EXECUTE ipe_hook=MMAP enforcing=1 pid=2241 comm="ld-linux.so" path="/deny/lib/libc.so.6" dev="sda2" ino=14549020 rule="DEFAULT action=DENY"
+ type=1300 audit(1653364370.067:61): SYSCALL arch=c000003e syscall=9 success=no exit=-13 a0=7f1105a28000 a1=195000 a2=5 a3=812 items=0 ppid=2219 pid=2241 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts0 ses=2 comm="ld-linux.so" exe="/tmp/ipe-test/lib/ld-linux.so" subj=unconfined key=(null)
+ type=1327 audit(1653364370.067:61): 707974686F6E3300746573742F6D61696E2E7079002D6E00
+
+ type=1420 audit(1653364735.161:64): ipe_op=EXECUTE ipe_hook=MMAP enforcing=1 pid=2472 comm="mmap_test" path=? dev=? ino=? rule="DEFAULT action=DENY"
+ type=1300 audit(1653364735.161:64): SYSCALL arch=c000003e syscall=9 success=no exit=-13 a0=0 a1=1000 a2=4 a3=21 items=0 ppid=2219 pid=2472 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts0 ses=2 comm="mmap_test" exe="/root/overlake_test/upstream_test/vol_fsverity/bin/mmap_test" subj=unconfined key=(null)
+ type=1327 audit(1653364735.161:64): 707974686F6E3300746573742F6D61696E2E7079002D6E00
+
+This event indicates that IPE made an access control decision; the IPE
+specific record (1420) is always emitted in conjunction with a
+``AUDITSYSCALL`` record.
+
+Determining whether IPE is in permissive or enforced mode can be derived
+from ``success`` property and exit code of the ``AUDITSYSCALL`` record.
+
+
+Field descriptions:
+
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| Field | Value Type | Optional? | Description of Value |
++===========+============+===========+=================================================================================+
+| ipe_op | string | No | The IPE operation name associated with the log |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| ipe_hook | string | No | The name of the LSM hook that triggered the IPE event |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| enforcing | integer | No | The current IPE enforcing state 1 is in enforcing mode, 0 is in permissive mode |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| pid | integer | No | The pid of the process that triggered the IPE event. |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| comm | string | No | The command line program name of the process that triggered the IPE event |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| path | string | Yes | The absolute path to the evaluated file |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| ino | integer | Yes | The inode number of the evaluated file |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| dev | string | Yes | The device name of the evaluated file, e.g. vda |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| rule | string | No | The matched policy rule |
++-----------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+1421 AUDIT_IPE_CONFIG_CHANGE
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Event Example::
+
+ type=1421 audit(1653425583.136:54): old_active_pol_name="Allow_All" old_active_pol_version=0.0.0 old_policy_digest=sha256:E3B0C44298FC1C149AFBF4C8996FB92427AE41E4649B934CA495991B7852B855 new_active_pol_name="boot_verified" new_active_pol_version=0.0.0 new_policy_digest=sha256:820EEA5B40CA42B51F68962354BA083122A20BB846F26765076DD8EED7B8F4DB auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 lsm=ipe res=1
+ type=1300 audit(1653425583.136:54): SYSCALL arch=c000003e syscall=1 success=yes exit=2 a0=3 a1=5596fcae1fb0 a2=2 a3=2 items=0 ppid=184 pid=229 auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts0 ses=4294967295 comm="python3" exe="/usr/bin/python3.10" key=(null)
+ type=1327 audit(1653425583.136:54): PROCTITLE proctitle=707974686F6E3300746573742F6D61696E2E7079002D66002E2
+
+This event indicates that IPE switched the active poliy from one to another
+along with the version and the hash digest of the two policies.
+Note IPE can only have one policy active at a time, all access decision
+evaluation is based on the current active policy.
+The normal procedure to deploy a new policy is loading the policy to deploy
+into the kernel first, then switch the active policy to it.
+
+This record will always be emitted in conjunction with a ``AUDITSYSCALL`` record for the ``write`` syscall.
+
+Field descriptions:
+
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| Field | Value Type | Optional? | Description of Value |
++========================+============+===========+===================================================+
+| old_active_pol_name | string | No | The name of previous active policy |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| old_active_pol_version | string | No | The version of previous active policy |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| old_policy_digest | string | No | The hash of previous active policy |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| new_active_pol_name | string | No | The name of current active policy |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| new_active_pol_version | string | No | The version of current active policy |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| new_policy_digest | string | No | The hash of current active policy |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| auid | integer | No | The login user ID |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| ses | integer | No | The login session ID |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| lsm | string | No | The lsm name associated with the event |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| res | integer | No | The result of the audited operation(success/fail) |
++------------------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+
+1422 AUDIT_IPE_POLICY_LOAD
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Event Example::
+
+ type=1422 audit(1653425529.927:53): policy_name="boot_verified" policy_version=0.0.0 policy_digest=sha256:820EEA5B40CA42B51F68962354BA083122A20BB846F26765076DD8EED7B8F4DB auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 lsm=ipe res=1
+ type=1300 audit(1653425529.927:53): arch=c000003e syscall=1 success=yes exit=2567 a0=3 a1=5596fcae1fb0 a2=a07 a3=2 items=0 ppid=184 pid=229 auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=pts0 ses=4294967295 comm="python3" exe="/usr/bin/python3.10" key=(null)
+ type=1327 audit(1653425529.927:53): PROCTITLE proctitle=707974686F6E3300746573742F6D61696E2E7079002D66002E2E
+
+This record indicates a new policy has been loaded into the kernel with the policy name, policy version and policy hash.
+
+This record will always be emitted in conjunction with a ``AUDITSYSCALL`` record for the ``write`` syscall.
+
+Field descriptions:
+
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| Field | Value Type | Optional? | Description of Value |
++================+============+===========+===================================================+
+| policy_name | string | No | The policy_name |
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| policy_version | string | No | The policy_version |
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| policy_digest | string | No | The policy hash |
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| auid | integer | No | The login user ID |
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| ses | integer | No | The login session ID |
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| lsm | string | No | The lsm name associated with the event |
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+| res | integer | No | The result of the audited operation(success/fail) |
++----------------+------------+-----------+---------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+1404 AUDIT_MAC_STATUS
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Event Examples::
+
+ type=1404 audit(1653425689.008:55): enforcing=0 old_enforcing=1 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 enabled=1 old-enabled=1 lsm=ipe res=1
+ type=1300 audit(1653425689.008:55): arch=c000003e syscall=1 success=yes exit=2 a0=1 a1=55c1065e5c60 a2=2 a3=0 items=0 ppid=405 pid=441 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=)
+ type=1327 audit(1653425689.008:55): proctitle="-bash"
+
+ type=1404 audit(1653425689.008:55): enforcing=1 old_enforcing=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 enabled=1 old-enabled=1 lsm=ipe res=1
+ type=1300 audit(1653425689.008:55): arch=c000003e syscall=1 success=yes exit=2 a0=1 a1=55c1065e5c60 a2=2 a3=0 items=0 ppid=405 pid=441 auid=0 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=)
+ type=1327 audit(1653425689.008:55): proctitle="-bash"
+
+This record will always be emitted in conjunction with a ``AUDITSYSCALL`` record for the ``write`` syscall.
+
+Field descriptions:
+
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| Field | Value Type | Optional? | Description of Value |
++===============+============+===========+=================================================================================================+
+| enforcing | integer | No | The enforcing state IPE is being switched to, 1 is in enforcing mode, 0 is in permissive mode |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| old_enforcing | integer | No | The enforcing state IPE is being switched from, 1 is in enforcing mode, 0 is in permissive mode |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| auid | integer | No | The login user ID |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| ses | integer | No | The login session ID |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| enabled | integer | No | The new TTY audit enabled setting |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| old-enabled | integer | No | The old TTY audit enabled setting |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| lsm | string | No | The lsm name associated with the event |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| res | integer | No | The result of the audited operation(success/fail) |
++---------------+------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+Success Auditing
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+IPE supports success auditing. When enabled, all events that pass IPE
+policy and are not blocked will emit an audit event. This is disabled by
+default, and can be enabled via the kernel command line
+``ipe.success_audit=(0|1)`` or
+``/sys/kernel/security/ipe/success_audit`` securityfs file.
+
+This is *very* noisy, as IPE will check every userspace binary on the
+system, but is useful for debugging policies.
+
+.. NOTE::
+
+ If a traditional MAC system is enabled (SELinux, apparmor, smack, etcetera),
+ all writes to ipe's securityfs nodes require ``CAP_MAC_ADMIN``.
+
+Properties
+----------
+
+As explained above, IPE properties are ``key=value`` pairs expressed in IPE
+policy. Two properties are built-into the policy parser: 'op' and 'action'.
+The other properties are used to restrict immutable security properties
+about the files being evaluated. Currently those properties are:
+'``boot_verified``', '``dmverity_signature``', '``dmverity_roothash``',
+'``fsverity_signature``', '``fsverity_digest``'. A description of all
+properties supported by IPE are listed below:
+
+op
+~~
+
+Indicates the operation for a rule to apply to. Must be in every rule,
+as the first token. IPE supports the following operations:
+
+ ``EXECUTE``
+
+ Pertains to any file attempting to be executed, or loaded as an
+ executable.
+
+ ``FIRMWARE``:
+
+ Pertains to firmware being loaded via the firmware_class interface.
+ This covers both the preallocated buffer and the firmware file
+ itself.
+
+ ``KMODULE``:
+
+ Pertains to loading kernel modules via ``modprobe`` or ``insmod``.
+
+ ``KEXEC_IMAGE``:
+
+ Pertains to kernel images loading via ``kexec``.
+
+ ``KEXEC_INITRAMFS``
+
+ Pertains to initrd images loading via ``kexec --initrd``.
+
+ ``POLICY``:
+
+ Controls loading policies via reading a kernel-space initiated read.
+
+ An example of such is loading IMA policies by writing the path
+ to the policy file to ``$securityfs/ima/policy``
+
+ ``X509_CERT``:
+
+ Controls loading IMA certificates through the Kconfigs,
+ ``CONFIG_IMA_X509_PATH`` and ``CONFIG_EVM_X509_PATH``.
+
+action
+~~~~~~
+
+ Determines what IPE should do when a rule matches. Must be in every
+ rule, as the final clause. Can be one of:
+
+ ``ALLOW``:
+
+ If the rule matches, explicitly allow access to the resource to proceed
+ without executing any more rules.
+
+ ``DENY``:
+
+ If the rule matches, explicitly prohibit access to the resource to
+ proceed without executing any more rules.
+
+boot_verified
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ This property can be utilized for authorization of files from initramfs.
+ The format of this property is::
+
+ boot_verified=(TRUE|FALSE)
+
+
+ .. WARNING::
+
+ This property will trust files from initramfs(rootfs). It should
+ only be used during early booting stage. Before mounting the real
+ rootfs on top of the initramfs, initramfs script will recursively
+ remove all files and directories on the initramfs. This is typically
+ implemented by using switch_root(8) [#switch_root]_. Therefore the
+ initramfs will be empty and not accessible after the real
+ rootfs takes over. It is advised to switch to a different policy
+ that doesn't rely on the property after this point.
+ This ensures that the trust policies remain relevant and effective
+ throughout the system's operation.
+
+dmverity_roothash
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ This property can be utilized for authorization or revocation of
+ specific dm-verity volumes, identified via their root hashes. It has a
+ dependency on the DM_VERITY module. This property is controlled by
+ the ``IPE_PROP_DM_VERITY`` config option, it will be automatically
+ selected when ``SECURITY_IPE`` and ``DM_VERITY`` are all enabled.
+ The format of this property is::
+
+ dmverity_roothash=DigestName:HexadecimalString
+
+ The supported DigestNames for dmverity_roothash are [#dmveritydigests]_
+
+ + blake2b-512
+ + blake2s-256
+ + sha256
+ + sha384
+ + sha512
+ + sha3-224
+ + sha3-256
+ + sha3-384
+ + sha3-512
+ + sm3
+ + rmd160
+
+dmverity_signature
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ This property can be utilized for authorization of all dm-verity
+ volumes that have a signed roothash that validated by a keyring
+ specified by dm-verity's configuration, either the system trusted
+ keyring, or the secondary keyring. It depends on
+ ``DM_VERITY_VERIFY_ROOTHASH_SIG`` config option and is controlled by
+ the ``IPE_PROP_DM_VERITY_SIGNATURE`` config option, it will be automatically
+ selected when ``SECURITY_IPE``, ``DM_VERITY`` and
+ ``DM_VERITY_VERIFY_ROOTHASH_SIG`` are all enabled.
+ The format of this property is::
+
+ dmverity_signature=(TRUE|FALSE)
+
+fsverity_digest
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ This property can be utilized for authorization of specific fsverity
+ enabled files, identified via their fsverity digests.
+ It depends on ``FS_VERITY`` config option and is controlled by
+ the ``IPE_PROP_FS_VERITY`` config option, it will be automatically
+ selected when ``SECURITY_IPE`` and ``FS_VERITY`` are all enabled.
+ The format of this property is::
+
+ fsverity_digest=DigestName:HexadecimalString
+
+ The supported DigestNames for fsverity_digest are [#fsveritydigest]_
+
+ + sha256
+ + sha512
+
+fsverity_signature
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ This property is used to authorize all fs-verity enabled files that have
+ been verified by fs-verity's built-in signature mechanism. The signature
+ verification relies on a key stored within the ".fs-verity" keyring. It
+ depends on ``FS_VERITY_BUILTIN_SIGNATURES`` config option and
+ it is controlled by the ``IPE_PROP_FS_VERITY`` config option,
+ it will be automatically selected when ``SECURITY_IPE``, ``FS_VERITY``
+ and ``FS_VERITY_BUILTIN_SIGNATURES`` are all enabled.
+ The format of this property is::
+
+ fsverity_signature=(TRUE|FALSE)
+
+Policy Examples
+---------------
+
+Allow all
+~~~~~~~~~
+
+::
+
+ policy_name=Allow_All policy_version=0.0.0
+ DEFAULT action=ALLOW
+
+Allow only initramfs
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+::
+
+ policy_name=Allow_Initramfs policy_version=0.0.0
+ DEFAULT action=DENY
+
+ op=EXECUTE boot_verified=TRUE action=ALLOW
+
+Allow any signed and validated dm-verity volume and the initramfs
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+::
+
+ policy_name=Allow_Signed_DMV_And_Initramfs policy_version=0.0.0
+ DEFAULT action=DENY
+
+ op=EXECUTE boot_verified=TRUE action=ALLOW
+ op=EXECUTE dmverity_signature=TRUE action=ALLOW
+
+Prohibit execution from a specific dm-verity volume
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+::
+
+ policy_name=Deny_DMV_By_Roothash policy_version=0.0.0
+ DEFAULT action=DENY
+
+ op=EXECUTE dmverity_roothash=sha256:cd2c5bae7c6c579edaae4353049d58eb5f2e8be0244bf05345bc8e5ed257baff action=DENY
+
+ op=EXECUTE boot_verified=TRUE action=ALLOW
+ op=EXECUTE dmverity_signature=TRUE action=ALLOW
+
+Allow only a specific dm-verity volume
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+::
+
+ policy_name=Allow_DMV_By_Roothash policy_version=0.0.0
+ DEFAULT action=DENY
+
+ op=EXECUTE dmverity_roothash=sha256:401fcec5944823ae12f62726e8184407a5fa9599783f030dec146938 action=ALLOW
+
+Allow any fs-verity file with a valid built-in signature
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+::
+
+ policy_name=Allow_Signed_And_Validated_FSVerity policy_version=0.0.0
+ DEFAULT action=DENY
+
+ op=EXECUTE fsverity_signature=TRUE action=ALLOW
+
+Allow execution of a specific fs-verity file
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+::
+
+ policy_name=ALLOW_FSV_By_Digest policy_version=0.0.0
+ DEFAULT action=DENY
+
+ op=EXECUTE fsverity_digest=sha256:fd88f2b8824e197f850bf4c5109bea5cf0ee38104f710843bb72da796ba5af9e action=ALLOW
+
+Additional Information
+----------------------
+
+- `Github Repository <https://github.com/microsoft/ipe>`_
+- Documentation/security/ipe.rst
+
+FAQ
+---
+
+Q:
+ What's the difference between other LSMs which provide a measure of
+ trust-based access control?
+
+A:
+
+ In general, there's two other LSMs that can provide similar functionality:
+ IMA, and Loadpin.
+
+ IMA and IPE are functionally very similar. The significant difference between
+ the two is the policy. [#devdoc]_
+
+ Loadpin and IPE differ fairly dramatically, as Loadpin only covers the IPE's
+ kernel read operations, whereas IPE is capable of controlling execution
+ on top of kernel read. The trust model is also different; Loadpin roots its
+ trust in the initial super-block, whereas trust in IPE is stemmed from kernel
+ itself (via ``SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYS``).
+
+-----------
+
+.. [#digest_cache_lsm] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20240415142436.2545003-1-roberto.sassu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
+
+.. [#interpreters] There is `some interest in solving this issue <https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220321161557.495388-1-mic@xxxxxxxxxxx/>`_.
+
+.. [#devdoc] Please see Documentation/security/ipe.rst for more on this topic.
+
+.. [#switch_root] https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/switch_root.8.html
+
+.. [#dmveritydigests] These hash algorithms are based on values accepted by
+ the Linux crypto API; IPE does not impose any
+ restrictions on the digest algorithm itself;
+ thus, this list may be out of date.
+
+.. [#fsveritydigest] These hash algorithms are based on values accepted by the
+ kernel's fsverity support; IPE does not impose any
+ restrictions on the digest algorithm itself;
+ thus, this list may be out of date.
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index 213d0719e2b7..bf7ae099db9c 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -2321,6 +2321,18 @@
ipcmni_extend [KNL,EARLY] Extend the maximum number of unique System V
IPC identifiers from 32,768 to 16,777,216.
+ ipe.enforce= [IPE]
+ Format: <bool>
+ Determine whether IPE starts in permissive (0) or
+ enforce (1) mode. The default is enforce.
+
+ ipe.success_audit=
+ [IPE]
+ Format: <bool>
+ Start IPE with success auditing enabled, emitting
+ an audit event when a binary is allowed. The default
+ is 0.
+
irqaffinity= [SMP] Set the default irq affinity mask
The argument is a cpu list, as described above.
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/fsverity.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/fsverity.rst
index 362b7a5dc300..46ab280e1b13 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/fsverity.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/fsverity.rst
@@ -92,7 +92,9 @@ authenticating fs-verity file hashes include:
"IPE policy" specifically allows for the authorization of fs-verity
files using properties ``fsverity_digest`` for identifying
files by their verity digest, and ``fsverity_signature`` to authorize
- files with a verified fs-verity's built-in signature.
+ files with a verified fs-verity's built-in signature. For
+ details on configuring IPE policies and understanding its operational
+ modes, please refer to Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst.
- Trusted userspace code in combination with `Built-in signature
verification`_. This approach should be used only with great care.
@@ -508,6 +510,7 @@ be carefully considered before using them:
files with a verified fs-verity builtin signature to perform certain
operations, such as execution. Note that IPE doesn't require
fs.verity.require_signatures=1.
+ Please refer to Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst for more details.
- A file's builtin signature can only be set at the same time that
fs-verity is being enabled on the file. Changing or deleting the
diff --git a/Documentation/security/index.rst b/Documentation/security/index.rst
index 59f8fc106cb0..3e0a7114a862 100644
--- a/Documentation/security/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/security/index.rst
@@ -19,3 +19,4 @@ Security Documentation
digsig
landlock
secrets/index
+ ipe
diff --git a/Documentation/security/ipe.rst b/Documentation/security/ipe.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..07e363224128
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/security/ipe.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,446 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+Integrity Policy Enforcement (IPE) - Kernel Documentation
+=========================================================
+
+.. NOTE::
+
+ This is documentation targeted at developers, instead of administrators.
+ If you're looking for documentation on the usage of IPE, please see
+ Documentation/admin-guide/LSM/ipe.rst
+
+Historical Motivation
+---------------------
+
+The original issue that prompted IPE's implementation was the creation
+of a locked-down system. This system would be born-secure, and have
+strong integrity guarantees over both the executable code, and specific
+*data files* on the system, that were critical to its function. These
+specific data files would not be readable unless they passed integrity
+policy. A mandatory access control system would be present, and
+as a result, xattrs would have to be protected. This lead to a selection
+of what would provide the integrity claims. At the time, there were two
+main mechanisms considered that could guarantee integrity for the system
+with these requirements:
+
+ 1. IMA + EVM Signatures
+ 2. DM-Verity
+
+Both options were carefully considered, however the choice to use DM-Verity
+over IMA+EVM as the *integrity mechanism* in the original use case of IPE
+was due to three main reasons:
+
+ 1. Protection of additional attack vectors:
+
+ * With IMA+EVM, without an encryption solution, the system is vulnerable
+ to offline attack against the aforementioned specific data files.
+
+ Unlike executables, read operations (like those on the protected data
+ files), cannot be enforced to be globally integrity verified. This means
+ there must be some form of selector to determine whether a read should
+ enforce the integrity policy, or it should not.
+
+ At the time, this was done with mandatory access control labels. An IMA
+ policy would indicate what labels required integrity verification, which
+ presented an issue: EVM would protect the label, but if an attacker could
+ modify filesystem offline, the attacker could wipe all the xattrs -
+ including the SELinux labels that would be used to determine whether the
+ file should be subject to integrity policy.
+
+ With DM-Verity, as the xattrs are saved as part of the Merkel tree, if
+ offline mount occurs against the filesystem protected by dm-verity, the
+ checksum no longer matches and the file fails to be read.
+
+ * As userspace binaries are paged in Linux, dm-verity also offers the
+ additional protection against a hostile block device. In such an attack,
+ the block device reports the appropriate content for the IMA hash
+ initially, passing the required integrity check. Then, on the page fault
+ that accesses the real data, will report the attacker's payload. Since
+ dm-verity will check the data when the page fault occurs (and the disk
+ access), this attack is mitigated.
+
+ 2. Performance:
+
+ * dm-verity provides integrity verification on demand as blocks are
+ read versus requiring the entire file being read into memory for
+ validation.
+
+ 3. Simplicity of signing:
+
+ * No need for two signatures (IMA, then EVM): one signature covers
+ an entire block device.
+ * Signatures can be stored externally to the filesystem metadata.
+ * The signature supports an x.509-based signing infrastructure.
+
+The next step was to choose a *policy* to enforce the integrity mechanism.
+The minimum requirements for the policy were:
+
+ 1. The policy itself must be integrity verified (preventing trivial
+ attack against it).
+ 2. The policy itself must be resistant to rollback attacks.
+ 3. The policy enforcement must have a permissive-like mode.
+ 4. The policy must be able to be updated, in its entirety, without
+ a reboot.
+ 5. Policy updates must be atomic.
+ 6. The policy must support *revocations* of previously authored
+ components.
+ 7. The policy must be auditable, at any point-of-time.
+
+IMA, as the only integrity policy mechanism at the time, was
+considered against these list of requirements, and did not fulfill
+all of the minimum requirements. Extending IMA to cover these
+requirements was considered, but ultimately discarded for a
+two reasons:
+
+ 1. Regression risk; many of these changes would result in
+ dramatic code changes to IMA, which is already present in the
+ kernel, and therefore might impact users.
+
+ 2. IMA was used in the system for measurement and attestation;
+ separation of measurement policy from local integrity policy
+ enforcement was considered favorable.
+
+Due to these reasons, it was decided that a new LSM should be created,
+whose responsibility would be only the local integrity policy enforcement.
+
+Role and Scope
+--------------
+
+IPE, as its name implies, is fundamentally an integrity policy enforcement
+solution; IPE does not mandate how integrity is provided, but instead
+leaves that decision to the system administrator to set the security bar,
+via the mechanisms that they select that suit their individual needs.
+There are several different integrity solutions that provide a different
+level of security guarantees; and IPE allows sysadmins to express policy for
+theoretically all of them.
+
+IPE does not have an inherent mechanism to ensure integrity on its own.
+Instead, there are more effective layers available for building systems that
+can guarantee integrity. It's important to note that the mechanism for proving
+integrity is independent of the policy for enforcing that integrity claim.
+
+Therefore, IPE was designed around:
+
+ 1. Easy integrations with integrity providers.
+ 2. Ease of use for platform administrators/sysadmins.
+
+Design Rationale:
+-----------------
+
+IPE was designed after evaluating existing integrity policy solutions
+in other operating systems and environments. In this survey of other
+implementations, there were a few pitfalls identified:
+
+ 1. Policies were not readable by humans, usually requiring a binary
+ intermediary format.
+ 2. A single, non-customizable action was implicitly taken as a default.
+ 3. Debugging the policy required manual steps to determine what rule was violated.
+ 4. Authoring a policy required an in-depth knowledge of the larger system,
+ or operating system.
+
+IPE attempts to avoid all of these pitfalls.
+
+Policy
+~~~~~~
+
+Plain Text
+^^^^^^^^^^
+
+IPE's policy is plain-text. This introduces slightly larger policy files than
+other LSMs, but solves two major problems that occurs with some integrity policy
+solutions on other platforms.
+
+The first issue is one of code maintenance and duplication. To author policies,
+the policy has to be some form of string representation (be it structured,
+through XML, JSON, YAML, etcetera), to allow the policy author to understand
+what is being written. In a hypothetical binary policy design, a serializer
+is necessary to write the policy from the human readable form, to the binary
+form, and a deserializer is needed to interpret the binary form into a data
+structure in the kernel.
+
+Eventually, another deserializer will be needed to transform the binary from
+back into the human-readable form with as much information preserved. This is because a
+user of this access control system will have to keep a lookup table of a checksum
+and the original file itself to try to understand what policies have been deployed
+on this system and what policies have not. For a single user, this may be alright,
+as old policies can be discarded almost immediately after the update takes hold.
+For users that manage computer fleets in the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands,
+with multiple different operating systems, and multiple different operational needs,
+this quickly becomes an issue, as stale policies from years ago may be present,
+quickly resulting in the need to recover the policy or fund extensive infrastructure
+to track what each policy contains.
+
+With now three separate serializer/deserializers, maintenance becomes costly. If the
+policy avoids the binary format, there is only one required serializer: from the
+human-readable form to the data structure in kernel, saving on code maintenance,
+and retaining operability.
+
+The second issue with a binary format is one of transparency. As IPE controls
+access based on the trust of the system's resources, it's policy must also be
+trusted to be changed. This is done through signatures, resulting in needing
+signing as a process. Signing, as a process, is typically done with a
+high security bar, as anything signed can be used to attack integrity
+enforcement systems. It is also important that, when signing something, that
+the signer is aware of what they are signing. A binary policy can cause
+obfuscation of that fact; what signers see is an opaque binary blob. A
+plain-text policy, on the other hand, the signers see the actual policy
+submitted for signing.
+
+Boot Policy
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+IPE, if configured appropriately, is able to enforce a policy as soon as a
+kernel is booted and usermode starts. That implies some level of storage
+of the policy to apply the minute usermode starts. Generally, that storage
+can be handled in one of three ways:
+
+ 1. The policy file(s) live on disk and the kernel loads the policy prior
+ to an code path that would result in an enforcement decision.
+ 2. The policy file(s) are passed by the bootloader to the kernel, who
+ parses the policy.
+ 3. There is a policy file that is compiled into the kernel that is
+ parsed and enforced on initialization.
+
+The first option has problems: the kernel reading files from userspace
+is typically discouraged and very uncommon in the kernel.
+
+The second option also has problems: Linux supports a variety of bootloaders
+across its entire ecosystem - every bootloader would have to support this
+new methodology or there must be an independent source. It would likely
+result in more drastic changes to the kernel startup than necessary.
+
+The third option is the best but it's important to be aware that the policy
+will take disk space against the kernel it's compiled in. It's important to
+keep this policy generalized enough that userspace can load a new, more
+complicated policy, but restrictive enough that it will not overauthorize
+and cause security issues.
+
+The initramfs provides a way that this bootup path can be established. The
+kernel starts with a minimal policy, that trusts the initramfs only. Inside
+the initramfs, when the real rootfs is mounted, but not yet transferred to,
+it deploys and activates a policy that trusts the new root filesystem.
+This prevents overauthorization at any step, and keeps the kernel policy
+to a minimal size.
+
+Startup
+^^^^^^^
+
+Not every system, however starts with an initramfs, so the startup policy
+compiled into the kernel will need some flexibility to express how trust
+is established for the next phase of the bootup. To this end, if we just
+make the compiled-in policy a full IPE policy, it allows system builders
+to express the first stage bootup requirements appropriately.
+
+Updatable, Rebootless Policy
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+As requirements change over time (vulnerabilities are found in previously
+trusted applications, keys roll, etcetera). Updating a kernel to change the
+meet those security goals is not always a suitable option, as updates are not
+always risk-free, and blocking a security update leaves systems vulnerable.
+This means IPE requires a policy that can be completely updated (allowing
+revocations of existing policy) from a source external to the kernel (allowing
+policies to be updated without updating the kernel).
+
+Additionally, since the kernel is stateless between invocations, and reading
+policy files off the disk from kernel space is a bad idea(tm), then the
+policy updates have to be done rebootlessly.
+
+To allow an update from an external source, it could be potentially malicious,
+so this policy needs to have a way to be identified as trusted. This is
+done via a signature chained to a trust source in the kernel. Arbitrarily,
+this is the ``SYSTEM_TRUSTED_KEYRING``, a keyring that is initially
+populated at kernel compile-time, as this matches the expectation that the
+author of the compiled-in policy described above is the same entity that can
+deploy policy updates.
+
+Anti-Rollback / Anti-Replay
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Over time, vulnerabilities are found and trusted resources may not be
+trusted anymore. IPE's policy has no exception to this. There can be
+instances where a mistaken policy author deploys an insecure policy,
+before correcting it with a secure policy.
+
+Assuming that as soon as the insecure policy is signed, and an attacker
+acquires the insecure policy, IPE needs a way to prevent rollback
+from the secure policy update to the insecure policy update.
+
+Initially, IPE's policy can have a policy_version that states the
+minimum required version across all policies that can be active on
+the system. This will prevent rollback while the system is live.
+
+.. WARNING::
+
+ However, since the kernel is stateless across boots, this policy
+ version will be reset to 0.0.0 on the next boot. System builders
+ need to be aware of this, and ensure the new secure policies are
+ deployed ASAP after a boot to ensure that the window of
+ opportunity is minimal for an attacker to deploy the insecure policy.
+
+Implicit Actions:
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The issue of implicit actions only becomes visible when you consider
+a mixed level of security bars across multiple operations in a system.
+For example, consider a system that has strong integrity guarantees
+over both the executable code, and specific *data files* on the system,
+that were critical to its function. In this system, three types of policies
+are possible:
+
+ 1. A policy in which failure to match any rules in the policy results
+ in the action being denied.
+ 2. A policy in which failure to match any rules in the policy results
+ in the action being allowed.
+ 3. A policy in which the action taken when no rules are matched is
+ specified by the policy author.
+
+The first option could make a policy like this::
+
+ op=EXECUTE integrity_verified=YES action=ALLOW
+
+In the example system, this works well for the executables, as all
+executables should have integrity guarantees, without exception. The
+issue becomes with the second requirement about specific data files.
+This would result in a policy like this (assuming each line is
+evaluated in order)::
+
+ op=EXECUTE integrity_verified=YES action=ALLOW
+
+ op=READ integrity_verified=NO label=critical_t action=DENY
+ op=READ action=ALLOW
+
+This is somewhat clear if you read the docs, understand the policy
+is executed in order and that the default is a denial; however, the
+last line effectively changes that default to an ALLOW. This is
+required, because in a realistic system, there are some unverified
+reads (imagine appending to a log file).
+
+The second option, matching no rules results in an allow, is clearer
+for the specific data files::
+
+ op=READ integrity_verified=NO label=critical_t action=DENY
+
+And, like the first option, falls short with the opposite scenario,
+effectively needing to override the default::
+
+ op=EXECUTE integrity_verified=YES action=ALLOW
+ op=EXECUTE action=DENY
+
+ op=READ integrity_verified=NO label=critical_t action=DENY
+
+This leaves the third option. Instead of making users be clever
+and override the default with an empty rule, force the end-user
+to consider what the appropriate default should be for their
+scenario and explicitly state it::
+
+ DEFAULT op=EXECUTE action=DENY
+ op=EXECUTE integrity_verified=YES action=ALLOW
+
+ DEFAULT op=READ action=ALLOW
+ op=READ integrity_verified=NO label=critical_t action=DENY
+
+Policy Debugging:
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When developing a policy, it is useful to know what line of the policy
+is being violated to reduce debugging costs; narrowing the scope of the
+investigation to the exact line that resulted in the action. Some integrity
+policy systems do not provide this information, instead providing the
+information that was used in the evaluation. This then requires a correlation
+with the policy to evaluate what went wrong.
+
+Instead, IPE just emits the rule that was matched. This limits the scope
+of the investigation to the exact policy line (in the case of a specific
+rule), or the section (in the case of a DEFAULT). This decreases iteration
+and investigation times when policy failures are observed while evaluating
+policies.
+
+IPE's policy engine is also designed in a way that it makes it obvious to
+a human of how to investigate a policy failure. Each line is evaluated in
+the sequence that is written, so the algorithm is very simple to follow
+for humans to recreate the steps and could have caused the failure. In other
+surveyed systems, optimizations occur (sorting rules, for instance) when loading
+the policy. In those systems, it requires multiple steps to debug, and the
+algorithm may not always be clear to the end-user without reading the code first.
+
+Simplified Policy:
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Finally, IPE's policy is designed for sysadmins, not kernel developers. Instead
+of covering individual LSM hooks (or syscalls), IPE covers operations. This means
+instead of sysadmins needing to know that the syscalls ``mmap``, ``mprotect``,
+``execve``, and ``uselib`` must have rules protecting them, they must simple know
+that they want to restrict code execution. This limits the amount of bypasses that
+could occur due to a lack of knowledge of the underlying system; whereas the
+maintainers of IPE, being kernel developers can make the correct choice to determine
+whether something maps to these operations, and under what conditions.
+
+Implementation Notes
+--------------------
+
+Anonymous Memory
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Anonymous memory isn't treated any differently from any other access in IPE.
+When anonymous memory is mapped with ``+X``, it still comes into the ``file_mmap``
+or ``file_mprotect`` hook, but with a ``NULL`` file object. This is submitted to
+the evaluation, like any other file, however, all current trust mechanisms will
+return false as there is nothing to evaluate. This means anonymous memory
+execution is subject to whatever the ``DEFAULT`` is for ``EXECUTE``.
+
+.. WARNING::
+
+ This also occurs with the ``kernel_load_data`` hook, which is used by signed
+ and compressed kernel modules. Using signed and compressed kernel modules with
+ IPE will always result in the ``DEFAULT`` action for ``KMODULE``.
+
+Securityfs Interface
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The per-policy securityfs tree is somewhat unique. For example, for
+a standard securityfs policy tree::
+
+ MyPolicy
+ |- active
+ |- delete
+ |- name
+ |- pkcs7
+ |- policy
+ |- update
+ |- version
+
+The policy is stored in the ``->i_private`` data of the MyPolicy inode.
+
+Tests
+-----
+
+IPE has KUnit Tests for the policy parser. Recommended kunitconfig::
+
+ CONFIG_KUNIT=y
+ CONFIG_SECURITY=y
+ CONFIG_SECURITYFS=y
+ CONFIG_PKCS7_MESSAGE_PARSER=y
+ CONFIG_SYSTEM_DATA_VERIFICATION=y
+ CONFIG_FS_VERITY=y
+ CONFIG_FS_VERITY_BUILTIN_SIGNATURES=y
+ CONFIG_BLOCK=y
+ CONFIG_MD=y
+ CONFIG_BLK_DEV_DM=y
+ CONFIG_DM_VERITY=y
+ CONFIG_DM_VERITY_VERIFY_ROOTHASH_SIG=y
+ CONFIG_NET=y
+ CONFIG_AUDIT=y
+ CONFIG_AUDITSYSCALL=y
+ CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
+
+ CONFIG_SECURITY_IPE=y
+ CONFIG_IPE_PROP_DM_VERITY=y
+ CONFIG_IPE_PROP_DM_VERITY_SIGNATURE=y
+ CONFIG_IPE_PROP_FS_VERITY=y
+ CONFIG_IPE_PROP_FS_VERITY_BUILTIN_SIG=y
+ CONFIG_SECURITY_IPE_KUNIT_TEST=y
+
+In addition, IPE has a python based integration
+`test suite <https://github.com/microsoft/ipe/tree/test-suite>`_ that
+can test both user interfaces and enforcement functionalities.
--
2.44.0
