LIBBSM(3) Library Functions Manual LIBBSM(3)

libbsm — Basic Security Module (BSM) Audit API

Basic Security Module Library (libbsm, -lbsm)

#include <bsm/libbsm.h>

The libbsm library routines provide an interface to BSM audit record streams, allowing both the parsing of existing audit streams, as well as the creation of new audit records and streams.

The libbsm library provides a large number of Audit programming interfaces in several classes: event stream interfaces, class interfaces, control interfaces, event interfaces, I/O interfaces, mask interfaces, notification interfaces, token interfaces, and user interfaces. These are described respectively in the au_class(3), au_control(3), au_event(3), au_mask(3), au_notify(3), au_token(3), and au_user(3) manual pages.

Audit event stream interfaces support interaction with file-backed audit event streams: au_close(3), au_close_buffer(3), au_free_token(3), au_open(3), au_write(3), audit_submit(3).

Audit class interfaces support the look up of information from the audit_class(5) database: endauclass(3), getauclassent(3), getauclassent_r(3), getauclassnam(3), getauclassnam_r(3), setauclass(3).

Audit control interfaces support the look up of information from the audit_control(5) database: endac(3), setac(3), getacdir(3), getacfilesz(3), getacflg(3), getacmin(3), getacna(3), getacpol(3), au_poltostr(3), au_strtopol(3).

Audit event interfaces support the look up of information from the audit_event(5) database: endauevent(3), setauevent(3), getauevent(3), getauevent_r(3), getauevnam(3), getauevnam_r(3), getauevnonam(3), getauevnonam_r(3), getauevnum(3), getauevnum_r(3).

Audit I/O interfaces support the processing and printing of tokens, as well as the reading of audit records: au_fetch_tok(3), au_print_tok(3), au_read_rec(3).

Audit mask interfaces convert support the conversion between strings and au_mask_t values. They may also be used to determine if a particular audit event is matched by a mask: au_preselect(3), getauditflagsbin(3), getauditflagschar(3).

Audit notification routines track audit state in a form permitting efficient update, avoiding frequent system calls to check the kernel audit state: au_get_state(3), au_notify_initialize(3), au_notify_terminate(3). These interfaces are implemented only for Darwin/Mac OS X.

Audit token interfaces permit the creation of tokens for use in creating audit records for submission to event streams. Each interface converts a C type to its token_t representation: au_to_arg(3), au_to_arg32(3), au_to_arg64(3), au_to_attr64(3), au_to_data(3), au_to_exec_args(3), au_to_exec_env(3), au_to_exit(3), au_to_file(3), au_to_groups(3), au_to_header32(3), au_to_header64(3), au_to_in_addr(3), au_to_in_addr_ex(3), au_to_ip(3), au_to_ipc(3), au_to_ipc_perm(3), au_to_iport(3), au_to_me(3), au_to_newgroups(3), au_to_opaque(3), au_to_path(3), au_to_process(3), au_to_process32(3), au_to_process64(3), au_to_process_ex(3), au_to_process32_ex(3), au_to_process64_ex(3), au_to_return(3), au_to_return32(3), au_to_return64(3), au_to_seq(3), au_to_sock_inet(3), au_to_sock_inet32(3), au_to_sock_inet128(3), au_to_socket_ex(3), au_to_subject(3), au_to_subject32(3), au_to_subject64(3), au_to_subject_ex(3), au_to_subject32_ex(3), au_to_subject64_ex(3), au_to_text(3), au_to_trailer(3), au_to_zonename(3).

Audit user interfaces support the look up of information from the audit_user(5) database: au_user_mask(3), endauuser(3), setauuser(3), getauuserent(3), getauuserent_r(3), getauusernam(3), getauusernam_r(3), getfauditflags(3).

These functions convert between BSM and local constants, including the errno(2) number, socket type, and protocol famil spaces, and must be used to generate and interpret BSM return and extended socket tokens: au_bsm_to_domain(3), au_bsm_to_errno(3), au_bsm_to_fcntl_cmd(3), au_bsm_to_socket_type(3), au_domain_to_bsm(3), au_errno_to_bsm(3), au_fcntl_cmd_to_bsm(3), au_socket_type_to_bsm(3).

au_class(3), au_domain(3), au_errno(3), au_mask(3), au_notify(3), au_socket_type(3), au_token(3), au_user(3), audit_submit(3), audit_class(5), audit_control(5)

The OpenBSM implementation was created by McAfee Research, the security division of McAfee Inc., under contract to Apple Computer, Inc., in 2004. It was subsequently adopted by the TrustedBSD Project as the foundation for the OpenBSM distribution.

This software was created by Robert Watson, Wayne Salamon, and Suresh Krishnaswamy for McAfee Research, the security research division of McAfee, Inc., under contract to Apple Computer, Inc.

The Basic Security Module (BSM) interface to audit records and audit event stream format were defined by Sun Microsystems.

Bugs would not be unlikely.

The libbsm library implementations are generally thread-safe, but not reentrant.

The assignment of routines to classes could use some work, as it is decidely ad hoc. For example, au_read_rec() should probably be considered a stream routine.

March 5, 2009 Mac OS X 12