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1=====================2NetLabel Introduction3=====================4 5Paul Moore, paul.moore@hp.com6 7August 2, 20068 9Overview10========11 12NetLabel is a mechanism which can be used by kernel security modules to attach13security attributes to outgoing network packets generated from user space14applications and read security attributes from incoming network packets. It15is composed of three main components, the protocol engines, the communication16layer, and the kernel security module API.17 18Protocol Engines19================20 21The protocol engines are responsible for both applying and retrieving the22network packet's security attributes. If any translation between the network23security attributes and those on the host are required then the protocol24engine will handle those tasks as well. Other kernel subsystems should25refrain from calling the protocol engines directly, instead they should use26the NetLabel kernel security module API described below.27 28Detailed information about each NetLabel protocol engine can be found in this29directory.30 31Communication Layer32===================33 34The communication layer exists to allow NetLabel configuration and monitoring35from user space. The NetLabel communication layer uses a message based36protocol built on top of the Generic NETLINK transport mechanism. The exact37formatting of these NetLabel messages as well as the Generic NETLINK family38names can be found in the 'net/netlabel/' directory as comments in the39header files as well as in 'include/net/netlabel.h'.40 41Security Module API42===================43 44The purpose of the NetLabel security module API is to provide a protocol45independent interface to the underlying NetLabel protocol engines. In addition46to protocol independence, the security module API is designed to be completely47LSM independent which should allow multiple LSMs to leverage the same code48base.49 50Detailed information about the NetLabel security module API can be found in the51'include/net/netlabel.h' header file as well as the 'lsm_interface.txt' file52found in this directory.53