[PATCH v5 00/13] ima: Introduce staging mechanism

[Stefan Berger]

On 4/29/26 12:03 PM, Roberto Sassu wrote:
> From: Roberto Sassu <roberto.sassu at huawei.com>
> 

> Usage
> =====
> 
> The IMA staging mechanism can be enabled from the kernel configuration
> with the CONFIG_IMA_STAGING option.
> 
> If it is enabled, IMA duplicates the current measurements interfaces
> (both binary and ASCII), by adding the _staged file suffix. Both the
> original and the staging interfaces gain the write permission for the
> root user and group, but require the process to have CAP_SYS_ADMIN set.
> 
> The staging mechanism supports two flavors.
> 
> Staging with prompt
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> The current measurements list is moved to a temporary staging area, and
> staged measurements are deleted upon confirmation.
> 
> This staging process is achieved with the following steps.
> 
>    1.  echo A > <original interface>: the user requests IMA to stage the
>        entire measurements list;
>    2.  cat <_staged interface>: the user reads the staged measurements;
>    3.  echo D > <_staged interface>: the user requests IMA to delete
>        staged measurements.
> 

I have a IMA log sharder (based on FUSE; does more 'copying' than 
'sharding') that successfully uses this method.

Tested-by: Stefan Berger <stefanb at linux.ibm.com>