On 05/12/2015 02:15 PM, Stephen Smalley wrote:
> On 05/12/2015 12:46 PM, 食肉大灰兔V5 wrote:
>> Hi, all
>>
>> I noticed that some rooting software can "root" the Android device and
>> provide root access for other apps, like KingRoot 4.0 recently has
>> successfully rooted my Nexus 5 running AOSP 5.1.0 R3. I wonder whether
>> restricting such rooting conduct is one of SEAndroid's objectives? If
>> yes, then how to protect from it?
> 
> Depends on what you mean by "root" the Android device.
> There's a legitimate way to do that for a Nexus device, i.e. boot into
> bootloader mode, run fastboot oem unlock, accept it on the screen, wait
> for userdata to be erased, and then use fastboot to flash any partition
> you like with a custom image containing anything you want.  SE for
> Android isn't going to prevent that, except insofar as the default
> policy may interfere with its operation unless they reflash the boot
> image with one containing a custom policy.
> 
> Then there is the illegimate way to do it, i.e. install an app or run
> something via adb shell that exploits a vulnerability in Android to
> escalate privileges and then proceeds to modify /system or other
> partitions.  In some cases, SE for Android can prevent the privilege
> escalation, but this depends on the nature of the vulnerability (kernel
> or userspace) and whether the vulnerable code is reachable/exploitable
> under the policy.  Also, SE for Android can prevent writing to /system
> or other partitions but if they are using a kernel vulnerability and
> gaining kernel code execution, then they can just disable SELinux (or
> any other kernel security feature).
> 
> With regard to detecting or preventing kernel exploits, Samsung KNOX has
> something called TIMA that seeks to detect and protect the kernel via
> software running in the TrustZone secure world.  grsecurity is a project
> that has implemented a number of kernel self-protection features that
> could potentially be ported to the Android kernel in order to improve
> its robustness against common flaws.

The other potentially relevant protection mechanism is verified boot,
which, if enabled, will detect tampering with /system or other verified
partitions at boot time.  See:
https://source.android.com/devices/tech/security/verifiedboot/index.html
http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2014/05/using-kitkat-verified-boot.html
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