^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 1) What: /sys/fs/selinux/disable
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 2) Date: April 2005 (predates git)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 3) KernelVersion: 2.6.12-rc2 (predates git)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 4) Contact: selinux@vger.kernel.org
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 5) Description:
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 6)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 7) The selinuxfs "disable" node allows SELinux to be disabled at runtime
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 8) prior to a policy being loaded into the kernel. If disabled via this
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 9) mechanism, SELinux will remain disabled until the system is rebooted.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 10)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 11) The preferred method of disabling SELinux is via the "selinux=0" boot
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 12) parameter, but the selinuxfs "disable" node was created to make it
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 13) easier for systems with primitive bootloaders that did not allow for
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 14) easy modification of the kernel command line. Unfortunately, allowing
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 15) for SELinux to be disabled at runtime makes it difficult to secure the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 16) kernel's LSM hooks using the "__ro_after_init" feature.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 17)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 18) Thankfully, the need for the SELinux runtime disable appears to be
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 19) gone, the default Kconfig configuration disables this selinuxfs node,
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 20) and only one of the major distributions, Fedora, supports disabling
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 21) SELinux at runtime. Fedora is in the process of removing the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 22) selinuxfs "disable" node and once that is complete we will start the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 23) slow process of removing this code from the kernel.
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 24)
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 25) More information on /sys/fs/selinux/disable can be found under the
^8f3ce5b39 (kx 2023-10-28 12:00:06 +0300 26) CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_DISABLE Kconfig option.