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Abstractions

This project and the official apparmor-profiles project provide a large selection of abstractions to be included in profiles. They should always be used as they target wide compatibility across hardware and distributions while only allowing the bare minimum access.

Example

For instance, to allow download directory access instead of read and write permissions:

owner @{HOME}/@{XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR}/{,**} rw,

You should write:

include <abstractions/user-download-strict>

All of these abstractions can be extended by a system admin by adding rules in a file under /etc/apparmor.d/<name>.d where <name> is the name of one of these abstractions.

Application helper

Abstraction that aims at including a complete set of rules for a given program. The calling profile only needs to add rules dependant of its use case/program.

It is mostly useful for program often used in sub profile or for forks based on the same upstream.

app/chromium

A full set of rules for all chromium based browsers. It works as a function and requires some variables to be provided as arguments and to be set in the header of the calling profile:

apparmor.d/groups/browsers/chromium

@{name} = chromium
@{domain} = org.chromium.Chromium
@{lib_dirs} = @{lib}/@{name}
@{config_dirs} = @{user_config_dirs}/@{name}
@{cache_dirs} = @{user_cache_dirs}/@{name}

If your application requires chromium to run use common/chromium or common/electron instead.

app/firefox

Similar to app/chromium but for Firefox based browsers (and thunderbird). It requires the same arguments as app/chromium:

Context helper

These are context helper to be used for in sub profile, they aim at providing a minimal set of rules for a given program. The calling profile only needs to add rules dependant of its use case.

app/editor

A minimal set of rules for profiles including terminal editor. It is intended to be used in profiles or sub-profiles that need to edit file using the user editor of choice. The following editors are supported:

  • neo vim
  • vim
  • nano
  @{editor_path} rCx -> editor,

  profile editor {
    include <abstractions/base>
    include <abstractions/app/editor>

    include if exists <local/<profile_name>_editor>
  }

app/kmod

A minimal set of rules for profiles that need to load kernel modules. It is intended to be used in profiles or sub-profiles that need to load kernel modules for a very specific action:

  @{bin}/modprobe rCx -> kmod,

  profile kmod {
    include <abstractions/base>
    include <abstractions/app/kmod>

    include if exists <local/<profile_name>_kmod>
  }

app/open

Set of rules for child-open-* profiles. It should usually not be used directly in a profile.

app/pgrep

Minimal set of rules for pgrep/pkill. It is intended to be used in profiles or sub-profiles that need to use pgrep or pkill for a very specific action:

 @{bin}/pgrep rCx -> pgrep,

 profile pgrep {
   include <abstractions/base>
   include <abstractions/app/pgrep>

   include if exists <local/<profile_name>_pgrep>
 }

app/sudo

A minimal set of rules for profiles including internal sudo. Interactive sudo needs more rules. It is intended to be used in profiles or sub-profiles that need to elevate their privileges using sudo or su for a very specific action:

  @{bin}/sudo rCx  -> root,

  profile root {
    include <abstractions/base>
    include <abstractions/app/sudo>

    include if exists <local/<profile_name>_root>
  }

app/pkexec

A minimal set of rules for profiles including internal pkexec. Like app/sudo, it should be used in profiles or sub-profiles that need to elevate their privileges using pkexec for a very specific action:

  @{bin}/pkexec rCx -> pkexec,

  profile pkexec {
    include <abstractions/base>
    include <abstractions/app/pkexec>

    include if exists <local/<profile_name>_pkexec>
  }

app/systemctl

An alternative solution for child-systemctl, when the child profile provides too much/not enough access. This abstraction should be used by a sub profile as follows:

  @{bin}/systemctl  rCx ->  systemctl,

  profile systemctl {
    include <abstractions/base>
    include <abstractions/app/systemctl>

    include if exists <local/<profile_name>_systemctl>
  }

app/udevadm

A minimal set of rules for profiles including internal udevadm as read-only. It is intended to be used in profiles or sub-profiles that need to use udevadm for a very specific action:

  @{bin}/udevadm rCx -> udevadm,

  profile udevadm {
    include <abstractions/base>
    include <abstractions/app/udevadm>

    include if exists <local/<profile_name>_udevadm>
  }

Common Dependencies

On the contrary of abstractions/app/, abstractions in this directory are expected to provide a minimal set of rules to make a program using a dependency work.

common/app

Common rules for unknown userland UI applications that are sandboxed using bwrap.

Warning

This abstraction is wide on purpose. It is meant to be used by sandboxed applications that have no way to restrict access depending on the application being confined.

Do not use it for classic profile.

common/apt

Minimal access to apt sources, preferences, and configuration.

common/bwrap

Minimal set of rules for sandboxed programs using bwrap. A profile using this abstraction still needs to set:

  • The flag: attach_disconnected
  • Bwrap execution: @{bin}/bwrap rix,

common/chromium

A minimal set of rules for chromium based application. Handle access for internal sandbox.

common/electron

A minimal set of rules for all electron based UI applications. It works as a function and requires some variables to be provided as arguments and set in the header of the calling profile:

apparmor.d/profile-s-z/spotify

@{name} = spotify
@{lib_dirs} = /opt/@{name}
@{config_dirs} = @{user_config_dirs}/@{name}
@{cache_dirs} = @{user_cache_dirs}/@{name}

common/game

Core set of resources for any games on Linux. Runtimes such as sandboxing, wine, proton, game launchers should use this abstraction.

This abstraction uses the following tunables:

  • @{XDG_GAMESSTUDIO_DIR} for game studio and game engines specific directories (Default: @{XDG_GAMESSTUDIO_DIR}="unity3d")
  • @{user_games_dirs} for user specific game directories (e.g.: steam storage dir)

common/systemd

Common set of rules for internal systemd suite.

Warning

It should only be used by the systemd suite.

Audio

audio-client

Most programs do not need access to audio devices, audio-client only includes configuration files to be used by client applications.

audio-server

Provides access to audio devices. It should only be used by audio servers that need direct access to them.

Dbus

See the Dbus page.

User files

user-read

This abstraction gives read access on all defined user directories. It should only be used if access to ALL folders under xdg directories is required.

user-download-strict

Provides write access to all user download directories

deny-sensitive-home

Denies access to some sensitive directories under /home/. It is intended to be used by the few profiles that legitimately require full unrestricted access over all user directories (file managers and search engines). It allows to us to block access to really sensitive data to such profiles.

Danger

Do not use this abstraction for other profiles without explicit authorisation from the project maintainer

Per the Rule of this project:

Only what is explicitly required should be authorized. Meaning, you should not allow everything (or a large area) and deny some sub areas.

dconf-write

Permissions for querying dconf settings with write access.

Shell

Warning

These abstractions are only required when an interactive shell is started. Classic shell scripts do not need them.

Only use shells, other abstractions are software dependant and should not usually be used directly.

shells

Common rules for interactive shells.

bash-strict

Common rules for interactive shell using bash.

zsh

Common rules for interactive shell using zsh.

fish

Common rules for interactive shell using fish.

System

nameservice-strict

Many programs wish to perform nameservice like operations, such as looking up users by name or ID, groups by name or ID, hosts by name or IP, etc.

Use this abstraction instead of upstream abstractions/nameservice as upstream abstraction also provide full network access which is not needed for a lot of programs.

app-open

Instead of allowing the run of all software under @{bin} or @{lib} the purpose of this abstraction is to list all GUI program that can open resources. Ultimately, only sandbox manager program such as bwrap, snap, flatpak, firejail should be present here. Until this day, this profile will be a controlled mess.

app-launcher-root

app-launcher-user

Devices

devices-usb

Provides access to USB devices

disks-write

Provides read write access to disks devices

disks-read

Provides read-only access to disks devices

Desktop Environment

desktop

Unified minimal abstraction for all UI applications regardless of the desktop environment. When supported in apparmor, the condition will be used in this abstraction to filter resources specific for supported DE.

It is safe to use this in GUI applications as well as minimal desktop resource files, it includes access to configuration for: fonts, gtk & qt, wayland & xorg.

gnome-strict

Same as abstractions/desktop but limited to gnome.

kde-strict

Same as abstractions/desktop but limited to KDE.

Graphics

Use either graphics or graphics-full. The other abstractions are hardware/software dependent and should not usually be used directly.

graphics

Unified abstraction for GPU access regardless of the hardware used.

Replace and highly restrict <abstractions/opencl>

graphics-full

Identical to graphics with more direct access to nvidia GPU devices.

dri

Linux's graphics stack which allows unprivileged user-space programs to issue commands to graphics hardware without conflicting with other programs. Mostly used by Intel (integrated or not) and AMD GPUs.

Modernized equivalent of both dri-common and dri-enumerate

nvidia-strict

Modernized equivalent of abstractions/nvidia

vulkan-strict

Modernized equivalent of abstractions/vulkan