Previous versions included the patch 'ima: don't ignore INTEGRITY_UNKNOWN EVM status'. However, I realized that this patch cannot be accepted alone because IMA-Appraisal would deny access to new files created during the boot. With the current behavior, those files are accessible because they have a valid security.ima (not protected by EVM) created after the first write.
A solution for this problem is to initialize EVM very early with a random key. Access to created files will be granted, even with the strict appraisal, because after the first write those files will have both security.ima and security.evm (HMAC calculated with the random key).
Strict appraisal will work only if it is done with signatures until the persistent HMAC key is loaded.
Roberto Sassu (2): evm: add option to set a random HMAC key at early boot ima: add enforce-evm and log-evm modes to strictly check EVM status
.../admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 11 ++-- security/integrity/evm/evm.h | 10 +++- security/integrity/evm/evm_crypto.c | 57 ++++++++++++++++--- security/integrity/evm/evm_main.c | 41 ++++++++++--- security/integrity/ima/ima_appraise.c | 8 +++ security/integrity/integrity.h | 1 + 6 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)