xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/capsicum.4 (revision 8d20be1e22095c27faf8fe8b2f0d089739cc742e)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 2011, 2013 Robert N. M. Watson
3.\" Copyright (c) 2011 Jonathan Anderson
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27.\" $FreeBSD$
28.\"
29.Dd September 17, 2013
30.Dt CAPSICUM 4
31.Os
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm Capsicum
34.Nd lightweight OS capability and sandbox framework
35.Sh SYNOPSIS
36.Cd "options CAPABILITY_MODE"
37.Cd "options CAPABILITIES"
38.Cd "options PROCDESC"
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40.Nm
41is a lightweight OS capability and sandbox framework implementing a hybrid
42capability system model.
43.Nm
44can be used for application and library compartmentalisation, the
45decomposition of larger bodies of software into isolated (sandboxed)
46components in order to implement security policies and limit the impact of
47software vulnerabilities.
48.Pp
49.Nm
50provides two core kernel primitives:
51.Bl -tag -width indent
52.It capability mode
53A process mode, entered by invoking
54.Xr cap_enter 2 ,
55in which access to global OS namespaces (such as the file system and PID
56namespaces) is restricted; only explicitly delegated rights, referenced by
57memory mappings or file descriptors, may be used.
58Once set, the flag is inherited by future children processes, and may not be
59cleared.
60.It capabilities
61File descriptors that wrap other file descriptors, masking operations that can
62be called on them; for example, a file descriptor returned by
63.Xr open 2
64may be refined using
65.Xr cap_rights_limit 2
66so that only
67.Xr read 2
68and
69.Xr write 2
70can be called, but not
71.Xr fchmod 2 .
72.El
73.Pp
74In some cases,
75.Nm
76requires use of alternatives to traditional POSIX APIs in order to name
77objects using capabilities rather than global namespaces:
78.Bl -tag -width indent
79.It process descriptors
80File descriptors representing processes, allowing parent processes to manage
81child processes without requiring access to the PID namespace; described in
82greater detail in
83.Xr procdesc 4 .
84.It anonymous shared memory
85An extension to the POSIX shared memory API to support anonymous swap objects
86associated with file descriptors; described in greater detail in
87.Xr shm_open 2 .
88.El
89.Sh SEE ALSO
90.Xr cap_enter 2 ,
91.Xr cap_getmode 2 ,
92.Xr cap_rights_get 2 ,
93.Xr cap_rights_limit 2 ,
94.Xr fchmod 2 ,
95.Xr open 2 ,
96.Xr pdfork 2 ,
97.Xr pdgetpid 2 ,
98.Xr pdkill 2 ,
99.Xr pdwait4 2 ,
100.Xr read 2 ,
101.Xr shm_open 2 ,
102.Xr write 2 ,
103.Xr procdesc 4
104.Sh HISTORY
105.Nm
106first appeared in
107.Fx 9.0 ,
108and was developed at the University of Cambridge.
109.Sh AUTHORS
110.Nm
111was developed by
112.An -nosplit
113.An "Robert Watson" Aq rwatson@FreeBSD.org
114and
115.An "Jonathan Anderson" Aq jonathan@FreeBSD.org
116at the University of Cambridge, and
117.An "Ben Laurie" Aq benl@FreeBSD.org
118and
119.An "Kris Kennaway" Aq kris@FreeBSD.org
120at Google, Inc.
121.Sh BUGS
122.Nm
123is considered experimental in
124.Fx .
125