Question

Error "vcmi_device_t is not defined" in SELinux when Adding a New Port for SSH

A few months ago I created a Fedora 25 droplet and changed my SSH port. Obviously, I had to allow it through selinux and firewalld.

This is the command I ran as root:

semanage port -a -t ssh_port_t -p tcp [nonstandard port number]

I upgraded to Fedora 26 a little while back and I was setting up a mail server a couple days ago. I’ve rebooted a few times but suddenly after one of them SSH failed to bind. It turns out that selinux is back to blocking it, so I tried to add it back in.

# semanage port -a -t ssh_port_t -p tcp [port]
libsepol.context_from_record: type vmci_device_t is not defined
libsepol.context_from_record: could not create context structure
libsepol.context_from_string: could not create context structure
libsepol.sepol_context_to_sid: could not convert system_u:object_r:vmci_device_t:s0 to sid
invalid context system_u:object_r:vmci_device_t:s0
libsemanage.semanage_validate_and_compile_fcontexts: setfiles returned error code 255.
OSError: [Errno 0] Error

I’ve tried a few different ports. Ones that are already defined give the expected error. Other ports give the vmci one.

# semanage port -a -t ssh_port_t -p tcp 22
ValueError: Port tcp/22 already defined

VMCI seems to be related to vmware. I didn’t install anything of the sort so I’m guessing DigitalOcean uses it for their droplets or something. Help? I’m willing to migrate to a new droplet at this point if I need to but I want to know what went wrong and how to fix it.

SSH works normally on 22 or when selinux is disabled or permissive, but those are workarounds not solutions.


Submit an answer


This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

Sign In or Sign Up to Answer

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

Accepted Answer

Finally found a fix by restoring all the contexts:

touch /.autorelabel
reboot

Try DigitalOcean for free

Click below to sign up and get $200 of credit to try our products over 60 days!

Sign up

Get our biweekly newsletter

Sign up for Infrastructure as a Newsletter.

Hollie's Hub for Good

Working on improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth? We'd like to help.

Become a contributor

Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.

Welcome to the developer cloud

DigitalOcean makes it simple to launch in the cloud and scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Learn more
DigitalOcean Cloud Control Panel