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Bug 639083 - SELinux prevents passwd from working in runlevel 1
Summary: SELinux prevents passwd from working in runlevel 1
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: selinux-policy
Version: 6.0
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
high
high
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Miroslav Grepl
QA Contact: Milos Malik
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 580448 644820
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2010-09-30 19:13 UTC by George Hacker
Modified: 2012-10-16 11:08 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

Fixed In Version: selinux-policy-3.7.19-58.el6
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Prior to this update, running the passwd command in the single user mode (that is, runlevel 1) failed when SELinux was enabled. To address this issue, the SELinux rules have been updated, so that passwd can now access the console, as well as all terminals (TTYs) and pseudo terminals (PTYs).
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-05-19 11:56:42 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)
AVC errors from dmesg after failed passwd attempt (438 bytes, text/plain)
2010-09-30 19:13 UTC, George Hacker 		no flags Details
View All


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHBA-2011:0526 0 normal SHIPPED_LIVE selinux-policy bug fix and enhancement update 2011-05-19 09:37:41 UTC

Description George Hacker 2010-09-30 19:13:49 UTC 
Created attachment 450843 [details]
AVC errors from dmesg after failed passwd attempt

Description of problem:
The passwd command doesn't function when used in runlevel 1 because of an SELinux violation.  It is expected that passwd can be used in runlevel 1 to recover a system with an unknown root password.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
selinux-policy-targeted-3.7.19-54.el6.noarch

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot system into runlevel 1
2. Execute passwd command
  
Actual results:
passwd command pauses then shell returns prompt.  No prompting is given to provide the new password.

Expected results:
passwd command should prompt for new password.

Additional info:
Changing SELinux into permissive mode before executing passwd restores desired functionality.  Passwd will prompt and update passwords.
Comment 1 Daniel Walsh 2010-09-30 19:25:39 UTC 
Single user mode is supposed to execute sushell

If you execute 

# sushell
# passwd

Does it work?
Comment 2 Forrest Taylor 2010-09-30 19:29:50 UTC 
No, same error.
Comment 4 Daniel Walsh 2010-09-30 19:45:20 UTC 
The attachment is not viewable.

What avc are you seeing?
Comment 5 Daniel Walsh 2010-09-30 19:45:46 UTC 
Also what does

id -Z 

show?

id -Z 
after running sushell
Comment 6 Steve Bonneville 2010-09-30 19:53:17 UTC 
One difference we noticed between single and rl 5 was that passwd is
transitioning into system_u:system_r:passwd_t in runlevel single and
unconfined_u:unconfined_r:passwd_t in runlevel 5.  

The other odd thing was that passwd seems to be trying to read a pipe
associated with fd 9 in the bash process in runlevel single.

Not sure what that pipe's there for.  fd 0 1 2 and 255 all point to
/dev/console.

The actual AVC:

type=1400 audit(1285871927.977:4): avc:  denied  { read } for  pid=819 comm="passwd" path="pipe:[10143]" dev=pipefs ino=10143 scontext=system_u:system_r:passwd_t:s0 tcontext=system_u:system_r:init_t:s0 tclass=fifo_file
Comment 7 Steve Bonneville 2010-09-30 19:54:47 UTC 
Re comment #5, both cases it shows "system_u:system_r:unconfined_t:s0".
Comment 8 Daniel Walsh 2010-09-30 20:13:16 UTC 
Miroslav add

term_use_all_terms(passwd_t)
Comment 9 Daniel Walsh 2010-09-30 20:13:54 UTC 
The difference is that the terminal in single user mode is labeled console_device_t and passwd is not allowed to use this.
Comment 10 Steve Bonneville 2010-09-30 20:26:33 UTC 
Ah.  And that was masked by a dontaudit rule.

The business with the avc for fd 9 is almost certainly related to the discussion in bug #618995#c6, coming from Upstart init.
Comment 12 Miroslav Grepl 2010-10-06 08:38:15 UTC 
Fixed in selinux-policy-3.7.19-56.el6.noarch
Comment 15 Jaromir Hradilek 2010-10-21 08:54:47 UTC 
    Technical note added. If any revisions are required, please edit the "Technical Notes" field
    accordingly. All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team.
    
    New Contents:
Prior to this update, running the passwd command in the single user mode (that is, runlevel 1) failed when SELinux was enabled. To address this issue, the SELinux rules have been updated, so that passwd can now access the console, as well as all terminals (TTYs) and pseudo terminals (PTYs).
Comment 16 Miroslav Grepl 2010-10-26 10:42:13 UTC 
Fixed in selinux-policy-3.7.19-58.el6.
Comment 19 errata-xmlrpc 2011-05-19 11:56:42 UTC 
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem
described in this bug report. This report is therefore being
closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information
on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files,
please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report
if the solution does not work for you.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2011-0526.html
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