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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY version SYSTEM "../version.xml">
]>
<refentry id="pklocalauthority.8">
<refentryinfo>
<title>pklocalauthority</title>
<date>May 2009</date>
<productname>polkit</productname>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>pklocalauthority</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo class="version"></refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>pklocalauthority</refname>
<refpurpose>PolicyKit Local Authority</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-description">
<title>DESCRIPTION</title>
<para>
The Local Authority is the default PolicyKit authority
implementation. Configuration for the Local Authority and
information pertaining to authorization decisions are read from
local files on the disk. One design goal of the Local Authority
is to split configuration items into separate files such that
3rd party packages and users won't conflict trying to edit the
same files. This policy also ensures smooth upgrades when
distributing PolicyKit using a package management system.
</para>
<para>
Files shipped with PolicyKit and 3rd party packages (e.g. under
package manager control) typically have comments (such
as <quote>DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE, it will be overwritten on
update</quote>) telling the system administrator that changes
will be overwritten on update.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-admin-authentication">
<title>ADMINISTRATOR AUTHENTICATION</title>
<para>
PolicyKit makes a distinction between <emphasis>user
authentication</emphasis> (to make the user in front of the
system prove he really is the user) and <emphasis>administrator
authentication</emphasis> (to make the user in front of the
system prove he really is an administrator). Since various
operating systems (or even flavors of the same operating system)
has different ways of defining "administrator", the Local
Authority provides a way to specify what "administrator
authentication" means.
</para>
<para>
By default, "administrator authentication" is defined as asking
for the root password. Since some systems, for usability
reasons, don't have a root password and instead rely on a group
of users being member of an administrative group that gives them
super-user privileges, the Local Authority can be configured to
support this use-case as well.
</para>
<para>
Configuration for the Local Authority is read from files in
the <filename>/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d</filename>
directory. All files are read in lexigraphical order (using the
C locale) meaning that later files can override earlier
ones. The file <filename>50-localauthority.conf</filename>
contains the settings provided by the OS vendor. Users and 3rd
party packages can drop configuration files with a priority
higher than 60 to change the defaults. The configuration file
format is simple. Each configuration file is a <emphasis>key
file</emphasis> (also commonly known as a <emphasis>ini
file</emphasis>) with a single group
called <literal>[Configuration]</literal>. Only a single
key, <literal>AdminIdentities</literal> is read. The value of
this key is a semi-colon separated list of identities that can
be used when administrator authentication is required. Users are
specified by prefixing the user name with
<literal>unix-user:</literal> and groups of users are specified
by prefixing with <literal>unix-group:</literal>. See
<xref linkend="pklocalauthority-examples"/> for an example of a
configuration file.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-directory-structure">
<title>DIRECTORY STRUCTURE</title>
<para>
The Local Authority reads files with <filename>.pkla</filename>
extension from the following directories
</para>
<programlisting>
/var/lib/polkit-1/
`-- localauthority
|-- 10-vendor.d
|-- 20-org.d
|-- 30-site.d
|-- 50-local.d
`-- 90-mandatory.d
</programlisting>
<para>
Each <filename>.pkla</filename> file contains one or more
authorization entries. If the underlying filesystem supports
file monitoring, the Local Authority will reload information
whenever <filename>.pkla</filename> files are added, removed or
changed.
</para>
<para>
Each directory is intended for a specific audience
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>10-vendor.d</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Reserved for the Operating System vendor.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>20-org.d</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Reserved for the organization deploying the system.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>30-site.d</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Reserved for site deploying the system.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>50-local.d</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Reserved for local usage.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>90-mandatory.d</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Reserved for the organization deploying the system.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
Each <filename>.pkla</filename> file is a standard <emphasis>key
file</emphasis> and contains key/value pairs in one or more
groups with each group representing an authorization entry.
A <filename>.pkla</filename> file MUST be named by using a
scheme to ensure that the name is unique, e.g. reverse DNS
notation or similar. For example, if the organization is
<quote>Acme Corp</quote> needs to modify policy for the
product <quote>Frobnicator</quote>, a name
like <filename>com.acme.frobnicator.pkla</filename> would be
suitable.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-authorization-entry">
<title>AUTHORIZATION ENTRY</title>
<para>
Each group in a <filename>.pkla</filename> file must have a name
that is unique within the file it belongs to. The following keys
are are recognized:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>Identity</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
A semi-colon separated list of globs to match identities. Each glob
should start with <literal>unix-user:</literal> or
<literal>unix-group:</literal> to specify whether to match on a
UNIX user name or a UNIX group name.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>Action</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
A semi-colon separated list of globs to match action identifiers.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>ResultActive</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The result to return for subjects in an active local
session that matches one or more of the given identities.
Allowed values are similar to what can be used in
the <emphasis>defaults</emphasis> section
of <filename>.policy</filename> files used to define
actions, e.g.
<literal>yes</literal>,
<literal>no</literal>,
<literal>auth_self</literal>,
<literal>auth_self_keep</literal>,
<literal>auth_admin</literal> and
<literal>auth_admin_keep</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>ResultInactive</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Like <emphasis>ResultActive</emphasis> but instead applies
to subjects in inactive local sessions.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>ResultAny</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Like <emphasis>ResultActive</emphasis> but instead applies
to any subject.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><emphasis>ReturnValue</emphasis></term>
<listitem>
<para>
A semi-colon separated list of key/value pairs (of the
form key=value) that are added to the details of
authorization result on positive matches.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
All keys specified above are required except that only at least
one
of <emphasis>ResultAny</emphasis>, <emphasis>ResultInactive</emphasis>
and <emphasis>ResultActive</emphasis> must
be present. The <emphasis>ReturnValue</emphasis> key is optional.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-evaluation-order">
<title>EVALUATION ORDER</title>
<para>
When a Mechanism requests services from the Authority to check
if a given Subject is authorized for a given Action, the
authorization entries discussed above are consulted using the
following algorithm.
</para>
<para>
First, the user of the Subject is determined and the groups that
the user belongs are looked up. For each group identity, the
authorization entries are consulted in the lexigraphical order
(using standard lexicographical sorting (using the standard C
locale) of file names and appearance of each group in each
file). If the authorization check matches the data from the
authorization check, then the authorization result
from <emphasis>RequireAny</emphasis>, <emphasis>RequireInactive</emphasis>
or <emphasis>RequireActive</emphasis> is used
and <emphasis>ReturnValue</emphasis> is added to the
authorization result.
</para>
<para>
Finally, the authorization entries are consulted using the user
identity in the same manner.
</para>
<para>
Note that processing continues even after a match. This allows
for socalled <quote>negative authorizations</quote>, see
<xref linkend="pklocalauthority-examples"/> for further
discussion.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-examples">
<title>EXAMPLES</title>
<para>
The following <filename>.conf</filename> file
</para>
<programlisting>
[Configuration]
AdminIdentities=unix-group:desktop_admin_r
</programlisting>
<para>
that any user in the <literal>desktop_admin_r</literal> UNIX
group can be used for authentication when administrator
authentication is needed. This file would typically be installed
in the <filename>/etc/polkit-1/localauthority.conf.d</filename>
directory and given the
name <filename>60-desktop-policy.conf</filename> to ensure that
it is evaluted after
the <filename>50-localauthority.conf</filename> file shipped
with PolicyKit. If the local administrator wants to override this (suppose <filename>60-desktop-policy.conf</filename> was shipped as part of the OS) he can simply create a file <filename>99-my-admin-configuration.conf</filename> with the following content
</para>
<programlisting>
[Configuration]
AdminIdentities=unix-user:lisa;unix-user:marge
</programlisting>
<para>
to specify that only the users <literal>lisa</literal>
and <literal>marge</literal> can authenticate when
administrator authentication is needed.
</para>
<para>
The following <filename>.pkla</filename> file grants
authorization to all users in the <literal>staff</literal> group
for actions matching the
glob <literal>com.example.awesomeproduct.*</literal> provided
they are in an active session on the local console:
</para>
<programlisting>
[Normal Staff Permissions]
Identity=unix-group:staff
Action=com.example.awesomeproduct.*
ResultAny=no
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=yes
</programlisting>
<para>
If the users <literal>homer</literal> and <literal>grimes</literal> are member of
the <literal>staff</literal> group but policy requires that an
administrator needs to authenticate every time authorization for
any action
matching <literal>com.example.awesomeproduct.*</literal> is
required, one would add
</para>
<programlisting>
[Exclude Some Problematic Users]
Identity=unix-user:homer;unix-user:grimes
Action=com.example.awesomeproduct.*
ResultAny=no
ResultInactive=no
ResultActive=auth_admin
</programlisting>
<para>
and make sure this authorization entry is after the first one.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-author"><title>AUTHOR</title>
<para>
Written by David Zeuthen <email>davidz@redhat.com</email> with
a lot of help from many others.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-bugs">
<title>BUGS</title>
<para>
Please send bug reports to either the distribution or the
polkit-devel mailing list,
see the link <ulink url="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/polkit-devel"/>
on how to subscribe.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="pklocalauthority-see-also">
<title>SEE ALSO</title>
<para>
<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>polkit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>
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