MAC.CONF(5)						      BSD File Formats Manual						       MAC.CONF(5)

NAME

     mac.conf -- format of the MAC library configuration file

DESCRIPTION

     The mac.conf file configures the default label elements to be used by policy-agnostic applications that operate on MAC labels.  A file con-
     tains a series of default label sets specified by object class, in addition to blank lines and comments preceded by a '#' symbol.

     Currently, the implementation supports two syntax styles for label element declaration.  The old (deprecated) syntax consists of a single
     line with two fields separated by white space: the object class name, and a list of label elements as used by the mac_prepare(3) library
     calls prior to an application invocation of a function from mac_get(3).

     The newer more preferred syntax consists of three fields separated by white space: the label group, object class name and a list of label
     elements.

     Label element names may optionally begin with a '?' symbol to indicate that a failure to retrieve the label element for an object should be
     silently ignored, and improves usability if the set of MAC policies may change over time.

FILES

     /etc/mac.conf  MAC library configuration file.

EXAMPLES

     The following example configures user applications to operate with four MAC policies: mac_biba(4), mac_mls(4), SEBSD, and mac_partition(4).

	   #
	   # Default label set to be used by simple MAC applications

	   default_labels file ?biba,?lomac,?mls,?sebsd
	   default_labels ifnet ?biba,?lomac,?mls,?sebsd
	   default_labels process ?biba,?lomac,?mls,?partition,?sebsd
	   default_labels socket ?biba,?lomac,?mls

	   #
	   # Deprecated (old) syntax

	   default_file_labels ?biba,?mls,?sebsd
	   default_ifnet_labels ?biba,?mls,?sebsd
	   default_process_labels ?biba,?mls,partition,?sebsd

     In this example, userland applications will attempt to retrieve Biba, MLS, and SEBSD labels for all object classes; for processes, they will
     additionally attempt to retrieve a Partition identifier.  In all cases except the Partition identifier, failure to retrieve a label due to
     the respective policy not being present will be ignored.

SEE ALSO

     mac(3), mac_get(3), mac_prepare(3), mac(4), mac(9)

HISTORY

     Support for Mandatory Access Control was introduced in FreeBSD 5.0 as part of the TrustedBSD Project.

BUGS

     The TrustedBSD MAC Framework and associated policies, interfaces, and applications are considered to be an experimental feature in FreeBSD.
     Sites considering production deployment should keep the experimental status of these services in mind during any deployment process.  See
     also mac(9) for related considerations regarding the kernel framework.

BSD
								  April 19, 2003							       BSD