30 Getting started #
Prepare a successful deployment of AppArmor on your system by carefully considering the following items:
Determine the applications to profile. Read more on this in Section 30.3, “Choosing applications to profile”.
Build the needed profiles as roughly outlined in Section 30.4, “Building and modifying profiles”. Check the results and adjust the profiles when necessary.
Update your profiles whenever your environment changes or you need to react to security events logged by the reporting tool of AppArmor. Refer to Section 30.5, “Updating your profiles”.
30.1 Installing AppArmor #
AppArmor is installed and running on any installation of SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop by default, regardless of what patterns are installed. The packages listed below are needed for a fully functional instance of AppArmor:
apparmor-docs
apparmor-parser
apparmor-profiles
apparmor-utils
audit
libapparmor1
perl-libapparmor
yast2-apparmor
If AppArmor is not installed on your system, install the pattern
apparmor
for a complete
AppArmor installation. Either use the YaST Software Management
module for installation, or use Zypper on the command line:
>
sudo
zypper in -t pattern apparmor
30.2 Enabling and disabling AppArmor #
AppArmor is configured to run by default on any fresh installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. There are two ways of toggling the status of AppArmor:
- Using YaST services manager
Disable or enable AppArmor by removing or adding its boot script to the sequence of scripts executed on system boot. Status changes are applied on reboot.
- Using AppArmor configuration window
Toggle the status of AppArmor in a running system by switching it off or on using the YaST AppArmor Control Panel. Changes made here are applied instantaneously. The Control Panel triggers a stop or start event for AppArmor and removes or adds its boot script in the system's boot sequence.
To disable AppArmor permanently (by removing it from the sequence of scripts executed on system boot) proceed as follows:
Start YaST.
Select
› .Mark
apparmor
by clicking its row in the list of services, then click in the lower part of the window. Check that changed to in theapparmor
row.Confirm with
.
AppArmor is not initialized on reboot and stays inactive until you re-enable it. Re-enabling a service using the YaST tool is similar to disabling it.
Toggle the status of AppArmor in a running system by using the AppArmor Configuration window. These changes take effect when you apply them and survive a reboot of the system. To toggle the status of AppArmor, proceed as follows:
Start YaST, select
, and click in the main window.Enable AppArmor by checking or disable AppArmor by deselecting it.
Click
in the window.
30.3 Choosing applications to profile #
You need to protect the programs that are exposed to attacks in your particular setup, so use profiles for those applications you run. Use the following list to determine the candidates:
Network Agents |
Web Applications |
Cron Jobs |
To find out which processes are currently running with open network ports
and might need a profile to confine them, run
aa-unconfined
as root
.
aa-unconfined
#19848 /usr/sbin/cupsd not confined 19887 /usr/sbin/sshd not confined 19947 /usr/lib/postfix/master not confined 1328 /usr/sbin/smbd confined by '/usr/sbin/smbd (enforce)'
Each of the processes in the above example labeled not
confined
might need a custom profile to confine it. Those
labeled confined by
are already protected by AppArmor.
For more information about choosing the right applications to profile, refer to Section 31.2, “Determining programs to immunize”.
30.4 Building and modifying profiles #
AppArmor on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ships with a preconfigured set of profiles for the most important applications. Additionally, you can use AppArmor to create your own profiles for any application you want.
There are two ways of managing profiles. One is to use the graphical front-end provided by the YaST AppArmor modules and the other is to use the command-line tools provided by the AppArmor suite itself. The main difference is that YaST supports basic functionality for AppArmor profiles, while the command-line tools let you update/tune the profiles in a more fine-grained way.
For each application, perform the following steps to create a profile:
As
root
, let AppArmor create a rough outline of the application's profile by runningaa-genprof
PROGRAM_NAME.or
Outline the basic profile by running
› › › and specifying the complete path to the application you want to profile.A new basic profile is outlined and put into learning mode, which means that it logs any activity of the program you are executing, but does not yet restrict it.
Run the full range of the application's actions to let AppArmor get a specific picture of its activities.
Let AppArmor analyze the log files generated in Step 2 by typing S in aa-genprof.
AppArmor scans the logs it recorded during the application's run and asks you to set the access rights for each event that was logged. Either set them for each file or use globbing.
Depending on the complexity of your application, it might be necessary to repeat Step 2 and Step 3. Confine the application, exercise it under the confined conditions, and process any new log events. To properly confine the full range of an application's capabilities, you might be required to repeat this procedure often.
When you finish
aa-genprof
, your profile is set to enforce mode. The profile is applied and AppArmor restricts the application according to it.If you started
aa-genprof
on an application that had an existing profile that was in complain mode, this profile remains in learning mode upon exit of this learning cycle. For more information about changing the mode of a profile, refer to Section 35.7.3.2, “aa-complain—entering complain or learning mode” and Section 35.7.3.6, “aa-enforce—entering enforce mode”.
Test your profile settings by performing every task you need with the application you confined. Normally, the confined program runs smoothly and you do not notice AppArmor activities. If you notice certain misbehavior with your application, check the system logs and see if AppArmor is too tightly confining your application. Depending on the log mechanism used on your system, there are several places to look for AppArmor log entries:
/var/log/audit/audit.log
|
The command journalctl | grep -i apparmor
|
The command dmesg -T
|
To adjust the profile, analyze the log messages relating to this application again as described in Section 35.7.3.9, “aa-logprof—scanning the system log”. Determine the access rights or restrictions when prompted.
For more information about profile building and modification, refer to Chapter 32, Profile components and syntax, Chapter 34, Building and managing profiles with YaST, and Chapter 35, Building profiles from the command line.
30.5 Updating your profiles #
Software and system configurations change over time. As a result, your
profile setup for AppArmor might need certain fine-tuning from time to time.
AppArmor checks your system log for policy violations or other AppArmor
events and lets you adjust your profile set accordingly. Any application
behavior that is outside of any profile definition can be addressed by
aa-logprof
. For more information, see
Section 35.7.3.9, “aa-logprof—scanning the system log”.