SElinux concerning symlink?

Mike mike.cloaked at gmail.com
Thu Jul 24 08:00:54 UTC 2008


Tim <ignored_mailbox <at> yahoo.com.au> writes:

> I would imagine that the SELinux contexts are wrong.  They're applied to
> expected filepaths (home space contexts for the usual /home/username/
> filepaths), I imagine that they won't get applied across symlinks, as
> it'd be too easy for someone to symlink non-public system stuff into the
> middle of a public area, to try and access it.

Thanks Tim - in fact logging in on the laptop itself is fine - the problem
occurs when logging in via ssh from another machine.

I checked the selinux contexts with ls -Z and the contexts of 
/opt/Local/home are different to those of the symlink at /home

Yes the user area is then (via the symlink) /home/username and as I said
works fine for login on the machine itself.

I tried changing the context of the symlink using chcon but it would not
allow me to change the link (as root) - however I have also read that for
some circumstances it may be necessary to use the "newrole" command as 
root - but I am groping in the dark with this as I am not knowledgeable
about when this is appropriate.

Do you know of any links to a "getting started understanding SELinux"
type of guide?

The contexts for the files in the non-root partition appear to be set OK
and it looks like it is the symlink that is causing the problem. So far I
can use the applications as normal (i.e. as before) apart from this one
problem.

I have yet to explore whether there will be problems with dovecot if
the mail area is symlinked (again normal previous practice for me with
SELinux disabled previously)

Any further help appreciated... 







More information about the fedora-list mailing list