securelevel.hlp revision 285830
1This menu allows you to configure the Securelevel mechanism in FreeBSD. 2 3Securelevels may be used to limit the privileges assigned to the 4root user in multi-user mode, which in turn may limit the effects of 5a root compromise, at the cost of reducing administrative functions. 6Refer to the security(7) and init(8) manual pages for complete details. 7 8 -1 Permanently insecure mode - always run the system in level 0 9 mode. This is the default initial value. 10 11 0 Insecure mode - immutable and append-only flags may be turned 12 off. All devices may be read or written subject to their 13 permissions. 14 15 1 Secure mode - the system immutable and system append-only 16 flags may not be turned off; disks for mounted file systems, 17 /dev/mem, /dev/kmem and /dev/io (if your platform has it) 18 may not be opened for writing; kernel modules (see kld(4)) 19 may not be loaded or unloaded. 20 21 2 Highly secure mode - same as secure mode, plus disks may not 22 be opened for writing (except by mount(2)) whether mounted or 23 not. This level precludes tampering with file systems by 24 unmounting them, but also inhibits running newfs(8) while the 25 system is multi-user. 26 27 In addition, kernel time changes are restricted to less than 28 or equal to one second. Attempts to change the time by more 29 than this will log the message ``Time adjustment clamped to +1 30 second''. 31 32 3 Network secure mode - same as highly secure mode, plus IP 33 packet filter rules (see ipfw(8), ipfirewall(4) and pfctl(8)) 34 cannot be changed and dummynet(4) or pf(4) configuration 35 cannot be adjusted. 36 37Securelevels must be used in combination with careful system design and 38application of protective mechanisms to prevent system configuration 39files from being modified in a way that compromises the protections of 40the securelevel variable upon reboot. 41