namespace.conf
5
Linux-PAM Manual
namespace.conf
the namespace configuration file
DESCRIPTION
This module allows setup of private namespaces with polyinstantiated
directories. Directories can be polyinstantiated based on user name
or, in the case of SELinux, user name, sensitivity level or complete security context. If an
executable script /etc/security/namespace.init
exists, it is used to initialize the namespace every time a new instance
directory is setup. The script receives the polyinstantiated
directory path and the instance directory path as its arguments.
The /etc/security/namespace.conf file specifies
which directories are polyinstantiated, how they are polyinstantiated,
how instance directories would be named, and any users for whom
polyinstantiation would not be performed.
When someone logs in, the file namespace.conf is
scanned where each non comment line represents one polyinstantiated
directory with space separated fields as follows:
polydir instance_prefix method list_of_uids
The first field, polydir, is the absolute
pathname of the directory to polyinstantiate. Special entry $HOME is
supported to designate user's home directory. This field cannot be
blank.
The second field, instance_prefix is
the string prefix used to build the pathname for the instantiation
of <polydir>. Depending on the polyinstantiation
method it is then appended with
"instance differentiation string" to generate the final
instance directory path. This directory is created if it did not exist
already, and is then bind mounted on the <polydir> to provide an
instance of <polydir> based on the <method> column.
The special string $HOME is replaced with the user's home directory,
and $USER with the username. This field cannot be blank.
The directory where polyinstantiated instances are to be
created, must exist and must have, by default, the mode of 000. The
requirement that the instance parent be of mode 000 can be overridden
with the command line option ignore_instance_parent_mode
The third field, method, is the method
used for polyinstantiation. It can take 3 different values; "user"
for polyinstantiation based on user name, "level" for
polyinstantiation based on process MLS level and user name, and "context" for
polyinstantiation based on process security context and user name
Methods "context" and "level" are only available with SELinux. This
field cannot be blank.
The fourth field, list_of_uids, is
a comma separated list of user names for whom the polyinstantiation
is not performed. If left blank, polyinstantiation will be performed
for all users.
In case of context or level polyinstantiation the SELinux context
which is used for polyinstantiation is the context used for executing
a new process as obtained by getexeccon. This context must be set
by the calling application or pam_selinux.so
module. If this context is not set the polyinstatiation will be
based just on user name.
The "instance differentiation string" is <user name> for "user"
method and <user name>_<raw directory context> for "context"
and "level" methods. If the whole string is too long the end of it is
replaced with md5sum of itself. Also when command line option
gen_hash is used the whole string is replaced
with md5sum of itself.
EXAMPLES
These are some example lines which might be specified in
/etc/security/namespace.conf.
# The following three lines will polyinstantiate /tmp,
# /var/tmp and user's home directories. /tmp and /var/tmp
# will be polyinstantiated based on the security level
# as well as user name, whereas home directory will be
# polyinstantiated based on the full security context and user name.
# Polyinstantiation will not be performed for user root
# and adm for directories /tmp and /var/tmp, whereas home
# directories will be polyinstantiated for all users.
#
# Note that instance directories do not have to reside inside
# the polyinstantiated directory. In the examples below,
# instances of /tmp will be created in /tmp-inst directory,
# where as instances of /var/tmp and users home directories
# will reside within the directories that are being
# polyinstantiated.
#
/tmp /tmp-inst/ level root,adm
/var/tmp /var/tmp/tmp-inst/ level root,adm
$HOME $HOME/$USER.inst/inst- context
For the <service>s you need polyinstantiation (login for example)
put the following line in /etc/pam.d/<service> as the last line for
session group:
session required pam_namespace.so [arguments]
This module also depends on pam_selinux.so setting the context.
SEE ALSO
pam_namespace8,
pam.d5,
pam8
AUTHORS
The namespace.conf manual page was written by Janak Desai <janak@us.ibm.com>.