Description of problem:

Selinux prevents login via a USB port that's configured as a serial console, e.g. /dev/ttyUSB0

Error from journalctl:

Nov 16 15:08:23 intel-glk-01.ml3.eng.bos.redhat.com agetty[1599]: /dev/ttyUSB0: cannot open as standard input: Permission denied

From /var/log/audit/audit.log

type=SERVICE_START msg=audit(1510861554.753:445): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 msg='unit=serial-getty@ttyUSB0 comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
type=AVC msg=audit(1510861555.022:446): avc:  denied  { read write } for  pid=1599 comm="agetty" name="ttyUSB0" dev="devtmpfs" ino=15451 scontext=system_u:system_r:getty_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023 tcontext=system_u:object_r:usbtty_device_t:s0 tclass=chr_file
type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1510861555.022:446): arch=c000003e syscall=2 success=no exit=-13 a0=7ffe47edf2c0 a1=902 a2=0 a3=7ffe47ede600 items=0 ppid=1 pid=1599 auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=(none) ses=4294967295 comm="agetty" exe="/usr/sbin/agetty" subj=system_u:system_r:getty_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023 key=(null)


The ability to use a USB port as the system's serial console is becoming increasingly important. We are seeing more small systems where either there is no serial port or the serial port just does not work. However, such systems usually have many USB ports.

One obstacle to using a USB port with a USB-to-serial adapter cable is that the default RHEL 7.x SElinux policy does not allow agetty to initiate a login via that serial port.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

RHEL-7.5-20171114.n.0


How reproducible: 100%


Steps to Reproduce:
1. connect USB-to-serial cable from system under test to another system running putty or minicom
2. add to kernel command line: console=ttyUSB0,115200n81
3. systemctl enable serial-getty
4. add ttyUSB0 as last line to /etc/securetty (don't know if this is really needed)
5. reboot

Actual results:

1. Kernel boot messages appear via ttyUSB0 as expected
2. No login prompt via ttyUSB0 and agetty error in /var/log/audit/audit.log


Expected results:
1. Kernel boot messages appear via ttyUSB0
2. Login prompt and able to login to ttyUSB0 console 

Additional info:

agetty works and I'm able to login if either I:

1. Disable selinux on the kernel command line selinux=0

2. Or, I change the SElinux type of the /dev/ttyUSB0 device to match /dev/ttyS0

[root@localhost ~]# ls -Z /dev/ttyS0
crw--w----. root tty system_u:object_r:tty_device_t:s0 /dev/ttyS0
[root@localhost ~]# ls -Z /dev/ttyUSB0
crw--w----. root tty system_u:object_r:usbtty_device_t:s0 /dev/ttyUSB0
[root@intel-glk-01 ~]# chcon -t tty_device_t /dev/ttyUSB0
[root@intel-glk-01 ~]# ls -Z /dev/ttyUSB0
crw--w----. root tty system_u:object_r:tty_device_t:s0 /dev/ttyUSB0

Although work-around #2 is more targetted, it is not persistent across reboots.

If allowing login via ttyUSB0 by default raises security concerns, could you add an semanage boolean which would allow a system admin the option to enable this persistently as needed?

Finally, note that this is the same problem which was reported against Fedora 25 in BZ 1307443