I think you misunderstand the threat. As we found from boot loader and firmware 
update attacks, the ways to subvert policy are manifold. How can I tell who the 
“manufacturer” of my android phone that sets the policy really is and do I 
trust Android to maintain that trust.

thx ..tom

From: William Roberts
Sent: Friday, April 7, 2017 11:59 AM
To: Tom Jones
Cc: seandroid-list@tycho.nsa.gov; seli...@tycho.nsa.gov; Nick Kralevich
Subject: Re: add CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_LOAD_ONCE



On Apr 7, 2017 11:44, "Tom Jones" <thomasclinganjo...@gmail.com> wrote:
I am highly skeptical of policy setting and the supply chain. In the threat 
models I create, the supply chain is always the weak, open threat. I could not 
begin to guess who the manufacturer of a device is. Android, Samsung, Verizon 
or the US Gov't. Is there a threat model for SE Android, or whatever it is 
called now?

Well SE Android is fully integrated into Android. Vendors create the policy 
that ends up the boot image, which is typically signature verified at boot. If 
your supply chain is compromised, the selinux policy is your least concern. 
Under treble it ends up in different DM verity protected images.



I looked at the other site and decided it was looking at the technical problem 
and not the policy problem at all.

On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 11:23 AM, William Roberts <bill.c.robe...@gmail.com> 
wrote:


On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 11:02 AM, Tom Jones <thomasclinganjo...@gmail.com> wrote:
I like that, but I wonder at its scope. Would an update to the OS be allowed to 
update the policy? For example, Microsoft ships updates to the Windows O/S 2 
times (at least) per month. Would that type of update to Android allow policy 
updates?

Part of Android's updates include the policy that is loaded, so the update 
mechanism is in place.
 

Another question involves the list of authoritative CSPs. That can now be 
updated in most O/S available on the market. Is that still allowed to be 
updated, or is that already allowed by policy?
..tom

The policy is updated, currently, as part of the root file system. In a feature 
in progress, TREBLE (FULL_PRODUCT_TREBLE == true), two files, one from vendor 
and one from google are used to
generate the policy. 

essentially, the policy only comes from those making the device, theirs no 
random folks adding/removing policy.
 

On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 10:34 AM, Nick Kralevich <n...@google.com> wrote:
I wanted to draw people's attention to the following proposed change:

  https://android-review.googlesource.com/367695

In the case of Android, it's common for security policy to be loaded once, and 
never reloaded again. In that case, the locking / unlocking surrounding the 
in-kernel policy is unnecessary and can be avoided. The patch above turns the 
locks into no-ops and ensures that the kernel cannot load a policy more than 
once. End result is that locking and preemption overhead is avoided and there's 
less attack surface / code compiled into the kernel.

I would appreciate comments on the change. This feels like a worthwhile change 
for the entire SELinux community.

-- Nick

-- 
Nick Kralevich | Android Security | n...@google.com | 650.214.4037

_______________________________________________
Seandroid-list mailing list
Seandroid-list@tycho.nsa.gov
To unsubscribe, send email to seandroid-list-le...@tycho.nsa.gov.
To get help, send an email containing "help" to 
seandroid-list-requ...@tycho.nsa.gov.



-- 
..tom

_______________________________________________
Seandroid-list mailing list
Seandroid-list@tycho.nsa.gov
To unsubscribe, send email to seandroid-list-le...@tycho.nsa.gov.
To get help, send an email containing "help" to 
seandroid-list-requ...@tycho.nsa.gov.




-- 
Respectfully,

William C Roberts



-- 
..tom


_______________________________________________
Seandroid-list mailing list
Seandroid-list@tycho.nsa.gov
To unsubscribe, send email to seandroid-list-le...@tycho.nsa.gov.
To get help, send an email containing "help" to 
seandroid-list-requ...@tycho.nsa.gov.

Reply via email to