How to Disable SELinux on CentOS 7

SELinux, or Security-Enhanced Linux, is a set of security modules which are loaded in to kernel to improve security on accessing services/files which improve security. SELinux was initially released as a collaborative between Red Hat and the National Security Agency. The SELinux kernel separates policy and decisions inside the kernel to distribute levels of protection and prevent a total security breach.

Step 1: Check SELinux current status, issue the sestatus command.

[root@linuxcnf ~]# sestatus SELinux status:                              enabled SELinuxfs mount:                         /sys/fs/selinux SELinux root directory:                /etc/selinux Loaded policy name:                     targeted Current mode:                                enforcing Mode from config file:                  enforcing Policy MLS status:                         enabled Policy deny_unknown status:     allowed Max kernel policy version:          28 [root@linuxcnf ~]#

Step 2: Modify the SELinux configuration file and Change ‘SELINUX=enforcing’ to ‘SELINUX=permissive’ or ‘SELINUX=disabled’ and save the configuration file:

[root@linuxcnf ~]# vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux # This file controls the state of SELinux on the system. # SELINUX= can take one of these three values: #     enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced. #     permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing. #     disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded. SELINUX=disabled # SELINUXTYPE= can take one of three two values: #     targeted - Targeted processes are protected, #     minimum - Modification of targeted policy. Only selected processes are protected. #     mls - Multi Level Security protection. SELINUXTYPE=targeted [root@linuxcnf ~]#

Step 3: Reboot the system to reflect the changes.

[root@linuxcnf ~]# reboot