how does rpm work under Selinux

[Stephen Smalley]

On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 22:20 -0400, Ivan Gyurdiev wrote:
> Actually, I think all a rogue package has to do to subvert the SELinux
> scheme is to install itself where the regexps expect, and it will get
> labeled as a privileged process. 
> 
> It's certainly possible to restrict rpm on a SELinux system. I believe
> the current policy prevents it from writing to /etc/shadow, unless a
> tunable is on.
> 
> On the other hand I am suspicious whether this protection works at all -
> it probably allows the rpm to install an executable over an auth_write
> binary, at which point it can just install a hostile executable there,
> and the battle is lost.
> 
> I could be wrong though - I hadn't looked at the rpm policy until now...

Yes, rpm is effectively unrestricted at present.

-- 
Stephen Smalley
National Security Agency