A system administrator has just finished configuring a new service on a Linux server and confirmed it works correctly. To harden the system, the administrator enables SELinux and changes its mode to Enforcing using the setenforce 1 command. After this change, the new service fails to start, and access denial messages appear in /var/log/audit/audit.log. What is the primary function of SELinux Enforcing mode that is causing this behavior?
It automatically resets the standard file permissions of the service's files to be more restrictive.
It loads the security policy into the kernel but does not log or deny any actions.
It allows the action to proceed but logs a warning that the action violates the security policy.
It actively denies any action that violates the security policy and logs the denial.
The correct answer is that Enforcing mode actively blocks actions that violate the loaded SELinux policy and logs these denials. In this scenario, the new service is attempting an action that is not permitted by the current policy, so SELinux prevents the action and logs the event. The Permissive mode would only log the violation but would not block the action. The Disabled state would mean no SELinux policy is loaded or enforced. SELinux manages security via Mandatory Access Control (MAC) using security contexts, it does not directly reset or modify standard Discretionary Access Control (DAC) file permissions like chmod does.
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What is the difference between SELinux Enforcing and Permissive modes?
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What does SELinux use to manage security, and how is it different from standard file permissions?
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How can the `/var/log/audit/audit.log` file help resolve SELinux policy issues?
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