ima: added support for new kernel cmdline parameter ima_template_fmt

This patch allows users to provide a custom template format through the
new kernel command line parameter 'ima_template_fmt'. If the supplied
format is not valid, IMA uses the default template descriptor.

Changelog:
 - v3:
   - added check for 'fields' and 'num_fields' in
     template_desc_init_fields() (suggested by Mimi Zohar)

 - v2:
   - using template_desc_init_fields() to validate a format string
     (Roberto Sassu)
   - updated documentation by stating that only the chosen template
     descriptor is initialized (Roberto Sassu)

 - v1:
   - simplified code of ima_template_fmt_setup()
     (Roberto Sassu, suggested by Mimi Zohar)

Signed-off-by: Roberto Sassu <roberto.sassu@polito.it>
Signed-off-by: Mimi Zohar <zohar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 15 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.txt b/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.txt
index a4e102d..839b5da 100644
--- a/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.txt
+++ b/Documentation/security/IMA-templates.txt
@@ -27,25 +27,22 @@ Managing templates with these structures is very simple. To support
 a new data type, developers define the field identifier and implement
 two functions, init() and show(), respectively to generate and display
 measurement entries. Defining a new template descriptor requires
-specifying the template format, a string of field identifiers separated
-by the '|' character. While in the current implementation it is possible
-to define new template descriptors only by adding their definition in the
-template specific code (ima_template.c), in a future version it will be
-possible to register a new template on a running kernel by supplying to IMA
-the desired format string. In this version, IMA initializes at boot time
-all defined template descriptors by translating the format into an array
-of template fields structures taken from the set of the supported ones.
+specifying the template format (a string of field identifiers separated
+by the '|' character) through the 'ima_template_fmt' kernel command line
+parameter. At boot time, IMA initializes the chosen template descriptor
+by translating the format into an array of template fields structures taken
+from the set of the supported ones.
 
 After the initialization step, IMA will call ima_alloc_init_template()
 (new function defined within the patches for the new template management
 mechanism) to generate a new measurement entry by using the template
 descriptor chosen through the kernel configuration or through the newly
-introduced 'ima_template=' kernel command line parameter. It is during this
-phase that the advantages of the new architecture are clearly shown:
-the latter function will not contain specific code to handle a given template
-but, instead, it simply calls the init() method of the template fields
-associated to the chosen template descriptor and store the result (pointer
-to allocated data and data length) in the measurement entry structure.
+introduced 'ima_template' and 'ima_template_fmt' kernel command line parameters.
+It is during this phase that the advantages of the new architecture are
+clearly shown: the latter function will not contain specific code to handle
+a given template but, instead, it simply calls the init() method of the template
+fields associated to the chosen template descriptor and store the result
+(pointer to allocated data and data length) in the measurement entry structure.
 
 The same mechanism is employed to display measurements entries.
 The functions ima[_ascii]_measurements_show() retrieve, for each entry,
@@ -86,4 +83,6 @@ currently the following methods are supported:
  - select a template descriptor among those supported in the kernel
    configuration ('ima-ng' is the default choice);
  - specify a template descriptor name from the kernel command line through
-   the 'ima_template=' parameter.
+   the 'ima_template=' parameter;
+ - register a new template descriptor with custom format through the kernel
+   command line parameter 'ima_template_fmt='.