sediff (1)

sediff [OPTIONS] [EXPRESSION] ORIGINAL_POLICY ; MODIFIED_POLICY

sediff allows the user to inspect the semantic differences between two SELinux policies.

sediff supports loading SELinux policies in one of four formats.

source

A single text file containing policy source for versions 12 through 21. This file is usually named policy.conf.

binary

A single file containing a monolithic kernel binary policy for versions 15 through 21. This file is usually named by version - for example, policy.20.

modular

A list of policy packages each containing a loadable policy module. The first module listed must be a base module.

policy list

A single text file containing all the information needed to load a policy, usually exported by SETools graphical utilities.

Policies do not need to be the same format. If not provided sediff will print an error message and exit.

The user may specify an expression listing the policy elements to differentiate. If not provided, all supported policy elements sans neverallows are examined.

-c, --class

Find differences in permissions assigned to object classes and common permission sets.

--level

Find differences in categories authorized for MLS levels.

--category

Find differences in category definitions.

-t, --type

Find differences in attributes associated with types.

-a, --attribute

Find differences in types assigned to attributes.

-r, --role

Find differences in types authorized for roles.

-u, --user

Find differences in roles authorized for users.

-b, --bool

Find differences in the default values of booleans.

-A, --allow

Find differences in allow rules.

--auditallow

Find differences in auditallow rules.

--dontaudit

Find differences in dontaudit rules.

--neverallow

Find differences in neverallow rules.

--type_trans

Find differences in type_transition rules.

--type_member

Find differences in type_member rules.

--type_change

Find differences in type_change rules.

--role_trans

Find differences in role_transition rules. This includes differences in the default role.

--role_allow

Find differences in role allow rules.

--range_trans

Find differences in range_transition rules. This includes differences in the target MLS range.

-q, --quiet

If there are no differences for elements of a given kind, suppress status output for that kind of element.

--stats

Print difference statistics only.

-h, --help

Print help information and exit.

-V, --version

Print version information and exit.

sediff categorizes differences in policy elements into one of three forms.

added

The element exists only in the modified policy.

removed

The element exists only in the original policy.

modified

The element exists in both policies but its semantic meaning has changed. For example, a class is modified if one or more permissions are added or removed.

For all rules with types as their source or target, two additional forms of difference are recognized. This helps distinguish differences due to new types from differences in rules for existing types.

added, new type

The rule exists only in the modified policy; furthermore, one or more of the types in the rule do not exist in the original policy.

removed, missing type

The rule exists only in the original policy; furthermore, one or more of the types in the rule do not exist in the modified policy.

Most shells interpret the semicolon as a metacharacter, thus requiring a backslash like so: sediff original.policy \; modified.policy

This manual page was written by Jeremy A. Mowery <[email protected]>.

Copyright(C) 2004-2007 Tresys Technology, LLC

Please report bugs via an email to [email protected].

sediffx(1)