getcon(3) SELinux API documentation getcon(3)NAME
getcon, getprevcon, getpidcon - get SELinux security context of a
process.
freecon, freeconary - free memory associated with SELinux security con‐
texts.
getpeercon - get security context of a peer socket.
setcon - set current security context of a process.
SYNOPSIS
#include <selinux/selinux.h>
int getcon(security_context_t *context);
int getprevcon(security_context_t *context);
int getpidcon(pid_t pid, security_context_t *context);
int getpeercon(int fd, security_context_t *context);
void freecon(security_context_t con);
void freeconary(security_context_t *con);
int setcon(security_context_t context);
DESCRIPTIONgetcon retrieves the context of the current process, which must be
free'd with freecon.
getprevcon same as getcon but gets the context before the last exec.
getpidcon returns the process context for the specified PID.
getpeercon retrieves context of peer socket, and set *context to refer
to it, which must be free'd with freecon.
freecon frees the memory allocated for a security context.
freeconary frees the memory allocated for a context array.
If con is NULL, no operation is performed.
setcon sets the current security context of the process to a new value.
Note that use of this function requires that the entire application be
trusted to maintain any desired separation between the old and new
security contexts, unlike exec-based transitions performed via setexec‐
con(3). When possible, decompose your application and use setexeccon()
and execve() instead.
Since access to file descriptors is revalidated upon use by SELinux,
the new context must be explicitly authorized in the policy to use the
descriptors opened by the old context if that is desired. Otherwise,
attempts by the process to use any existing descriptors (including
stdin, stdout, and stderr) after performing the setcon() will fail.
A multi-threaded application can perform a setcon() prior to creating
any child threads, in which case all of the child threads will inherit
the new context. However, setcon() will fail if there are any other
threads running in the same process.
If the process was being ptraced at the time of the setcon() operation,
ptrace permission will be revalidated against the new context and the
setcon() will fail if it is not allowed by policy.
RETURN VALUE
On error -1 is returned. On success 0 is returned.
SEE ALSOselinux(8), setexeccon(3)russell@coker.com.au 21 December 2011 getcon(3)
