Ensure SELinux State is Enforcing

Docs > Datadog Security > OOTB Rules > Ensure SELinux State is Enforcing

Description

The SELinux state should be set to enforcing at system boot time. In the file /etc/selinux/config, add or correct the following line to configure the system to boot into enforcing mode:

SELINUX=enforcing

Rationale

Setting the SELinux state to enforcing ensures SELinux is able to confine potentially compromised processes to the security policy, which is designed to prevent them from causing damage to the system or further elevating their privileges.

Remediation

Shell script

The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.

#!/bin/bash

# Remediation is applicable only in certain platforms
if [ ! -f /.dockerenv ] && [ ! -f /run/.containerenv ]; then

var_selinux_state='enforcing'


if [ -e "/etc/selinux/config" ] ; then
    
    LC_ALL=C sed -i "/^SELINUX=/Id" "/etc/selinux/config"
else
    touch "/etc/selinux/config"
fi
# make sure file has newline at the end
sed -i -e '$a\' "/etc/selinux/config"

cp "/etc/selinux/config" "/etc/selinux/config.bak"
# Insert at the end of the file
printf '%s\n' "SELINUX=$var_selinux_state" >> "/etc/selinux/config"
# Clean up after ourselves.
rm "/etc/selinux/config.bak"

fixfiles onboot
fixfiles -f relabel

else
    >&2 echo 'Remediation is not applicable, nothing was done'
fi

Ansible playbook

The following playbook can be run with Ansible to remediate the issue.

- name: XCCDF Value var_selinux_state # promote to variable
  set_fact:
    var_selinux_state: !!str enforcing
  tags:
    - always

- name: Ensure SELinux State is Enforcing
  block:

  - name: Check for duplicate values
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/selinux/config
      create: true
      regexp: ^SELINUX=
      state: absent
    check_mode: true
    changed_when: false
    register: dupes

  - name: Deduplicate values from /etc/selinux/config
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/selinux/config
      create: true
      regexp: ^SELINUX=
      state: absent
    when: dupes.found is defined and dupes.found > 1

  - name: Insert correct line to /etc/selinux/config
    lineinfile:
      path: /etc/selinux/config
      create: true
      regexp: ^SELINUX=
      line: SELINUX={{ var_selinux_state }}
      state: present
  when: ansible_virtualization_type not in ["docker", "lxc", "openvz", "podman", "container"]
  tags:
  - CCE-27334-2
  - DISA-STIG-RHEL-07-020210
  - NIST-800-171-3.1.2
  - NIST-800-171-3.7.2
  - NIST-800-53-AC-3
  - NIST-800-53-AC-3(3)(a)
  - NIST-800-53-AU-9
  - NIST-800-53-SC-7(21)
  - high_severity
  - low_complexity
  - low_disruption
  - no_reboot_needed
  - restrict_strategy
  - selinux_state