Solaris Trusted Extensions Developer's Guide

Preface

The Solaris Trusted Extensions Developer's Guide describes how to use the application programming interfaces (APIs) to write new trusted applications for systems that are configured with the Solaris^TM Trusted Extensions software. Readers must be familiar with UNIX® programming and understand security policy concepts.

Note –

This Solaris release supports systems that use the SPARC® and x86 families of processor architectures: UltraSPARC®, SPARC64, AMD64, Pentium, and Xeon EM64T. The supported systems appear in the Solaris OS: Hardware Compatibility Lists at http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types.

In this document these x86 related terms mean the following:

“x86” refers to the larger family of 64-bit and 32-bit x86 compatible products.
“x64” points out specific 64-bit information about AMD64 or EM64T systems.
“32-bit x86” points out specific 32-bit information about x86 based systems.

For supported systems, see the Solaris OS: Hardware Compatibility Lists.

Note that the example programs in this book focus on the APIs being shown and do not perform error checking. Your applications should perform the appropriate error checking.

How the Solaris Trusted Extensions Books Are Organized

The Solaris Trusted Extensions documentation set supplements the documentation for the Solaris release. Review both sets of documentation for a more complete understanding of Solaris Trusted Extensions. The Solaris Trusted Extensions documentation set consists of the following books.

Book Title	Topics	Audience
Solaris Trusted Extensions Transition Guide	Obsolete. Provides an overview of the differences between Trusted Solaris 8 software, Solaris software, and Solaris Trusted Extensions software. For this release, the What's New document for the Solaris OS provides an overview of Trusted Extensions changes.	All
Solaris Trusted Extensions Reference Manual	Obsolete. For this release, Trusted Extensions man pages are included with the Solaris man pages.	All
Solaris Trusted Extensions User’s Guide	Describes the basic features of Solaris Trusted Extensions. This book contains a glossary.	End users, administrators, developers
Solaris Trusted Extensions Installation and Configuration	Obsolete. Describes how to plan for, install, and configure Solaris Trusted Extensions for the Solaris 10 11/06 and Solaris 10 8/07 releases of Trusted Extensions.	Administrators, developers
Solaris Trusted Extensions Administrator’s Procedures	For this release, Part I describes how to prepare for, enable, and initially configure Trusted Extensions. Part I replaces Solaris Trusted Extensions Installation and Configuration. Part II describes how to administer a Trusted Extensions system. This book contains a glossary.	Administrators, developers
Solaris Trusted Extensions Developer’s Guide	Describes how to develop applications with Solaris Trusted Extensions.	Developers, administrators
Solaris Trusted Extensions Label Administration	Provides information about how to specify label components in the label encodings file.	Administrators
Compartmented Mode Workstation Labeling: Encodings Format	Describes the syntax used in the label encodings file. The syntax enforces the various rules for well-formed labels for a system.	Administrators

How This Book Is Organized

Chapter 1, Solaris Trusted Extensions APIs and Security Policy provides an overview of the Solaris Trusted Extensions APIs and describes how the security policy is enforced within the system.

Chapter 2, Labels and Clearances describes the data types and the APIs for managing labels on processes and on device objects. This chapter also describes clearances, how a process acquires a sensitivity label, and when label operations require privileges. Guidelines for handling labels are also provided.

Chapter 3, Label Code Examples provides sample code that uses the APIs for labels.

Chapter 4, Printing and the Label APIs uses the Trusted Extensions multilevel printing service as an example of using the label APIs.

Chapter 5, Interprocess Communications provides an overview of how the security policy is applied to process-to-process communications within the same workstation and across the network.

Chapter 6, Trusted X Window System describes the data types and the APIs that enable administrative applications to access and modify security-related X Window System information. This chapter has a section of code examples.

Chapter 7, Trusted Web Guard Prototype provides an example of a safe web browsing prototype that isolates a web server and its web content from an Internet attack.

Chapter 8, Experimental Java Bindings for the Solaris Trusted Extensions Label APIs describes an experimental set of Java^TM classes and methods that mirror the label APIs that are provided with the Solaris Trusted Extensions software. This chapter also includes a pointer to the source code and build instructions, so you can use these APIs to create label-aware applications.

Appendix A, Programmer's Reference provides information about Solaris Trusted Extensions man pages, shared libraries, header files, and abbreviations used in data type names and in interface names. This appendix also provides information about preparing an application for release.

Appendix B, Solaris Trusted Extensions API Reference provides programming interface listings, including parameter and return value declarations.

Documentation, Support, and Training

The Sun web site provides information about the following additional resources:

Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this book.

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions


Typeface	Meaning	Example
`AaBbCc123`	The names of commands, files, and directories, and onscreen computer output	Edit your `.login` file. Use `ls -a` to list all files. `machine_name% you have mail.`
`AaBbCc123`	What you type, contrasted with onscreen computer output	`machine_name%` `su` `Password:`
`aabbcc123`	Placeholder: replace with a real name or value	The command to remove a file is `rm` `filename`.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new terms, and terms to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in the User's Guide. A cache is a copy that is stored locally. Do not save the file. Note: Some emphasized items appear bold online.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default UNIX system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–2 Shell Prompts


Shell	Prompt
C shell	`machine_name%`
C shell for superuser	`machine_name#`
Bourne shell and Korn shell	`$`
Bourne shell and Korn shell for superuser	`#`