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diff --git a/Documentation/netlabel/introduction.rst b/Documentation/netlabel/introduction.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..9333bbb0adc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/netlabel/introduction.rst @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +===================== +NetLabel Introduction +===================== + +Paul Moore, paul.moore@hp.com + +August 2, 2006 + +Overview +======== + +NetLabel is a mechanism which can be used by kernel security modules to attach +security attributes to outgoing network packets generated from user space +applications and read security attributes from incoming network packets. It +is composed of three main components, the protocol engines, the communication +layer, and the kernel security module API. + +Protocol Engines +================ + +The protocol engines are responsible for both applying and retrieving the +network packet's security attributes. If any translation between the network +security attributes and those on the host are required then the protocol +engine will handle those tasks as well. Other kernel subsystems should +refrain from calling the protocol engines directly, instead they should use +the NetLabel kernel security module API described below. + +Detailed information about each NetLabel protocol engine can be found in this +directory. + +Communication Layer +=================== + +The communication layer exists to allow NetLabel configuration and monitoring +from user space. The NetLabel communication layer uses a message based +protocol built on top of the Generic NETLINK transport mechanism. The exact +formatting of these NetLabel messages as well as the Generic NETLINK family +names can be found in the 'net/netlabel/' directory as comments in the +header files as well as in 'include/net/netlabel.h'. + +Security Module API +=================== + +The purpose of the NetLabel security module API is to provide a protocol +independent interface to the underlying NetLabel protocol engines. In addition +to protocol independence, the security module API is designed to be completely +LSM independent which should allow multiple LSMs to leverage the same code +base. + +Detailed information about the NetLabel security module API can be found in the +'include/net/netlabel.h' header file as well as the 'lsm_interface.txt' file +found in this directory. |