Introducing SELint – A Free SELinux Policy Analysis Tool

Introducing SELint – A Free SELinux Policy Analysis Tool


As part of our ongoing leadership in the SELinux community, Tresys – now Owl Cyber Defense, as the companies have recently merged – has developed SELint, a free tool designed to perform static code analysis on Reference Policy (refpolicy) SELinux source code. SELint is our latest contribution in our continued commitment to developing the open source community, building on previous contributions, including Certifiable Linux Integration Platform (CLIP), SETools, and more.

(Please note: SELint is not related to the tool of the same name developed by Elena Reshetova, Filippo Bonazzi, and N. Asokan for SEAndroid policy analysis)

SELint is designed to help developers write policy that is more maintainable, readable, and secure, and reduce the time spent debugging challenging policy issues. The tool checks for several common policy issues that can reduce maintainability and readability, generate policy that is counter to the intent of the policy writer, or cause difficult-to-diagnose errors. SELint is also fully configurable, enabling users to select a level of checking appropriate to their project.

SELint currently supports checks for the following policy issues:

  • Violations of Reference Policy TE file ordering conventions
  • Interface with no documentation comment
  • Use of require blocks
  • File context labels associated with the wrong module
  • Type referenced without explicit declaration
  • Type, attribute, or role used but not listed in require block in interface
  • Unused type, attribute, or role listed in require block in interface
  • Potentially unescaped regex character in file contexts paths
  • Interface call that should be in optional_policy block, but is not
  • Syntactically incorrect file context format
  • Nonexistent user, role, or type listed in fc file

SELint can be downloaded for free at: https://github.com/TresysTechnology/selint

Insights to your Inbox

Stay informed with the latest cybersecurity news and resources.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Daniel Bartucci Cyber Security Strategist - Critical Infrastructure

Fueling Resilience: Why Hardware-Enforced Security is Critical for the Modern Grid

The energy sector is transitioning to a more digital, interconnected, and decentralized grid, facing unprecedented challenges along the way. These advancements increase the need to protec...
January 23, 2026
Amalia Rosen

The Strategic Imperative of Decision Advantage

The Strategic Imperative of Decision Advantage The Department of Defense defines Decision Advantage as the ability to make and implement decisions faster and more effectively than an adv...
January 22, 2026
Kristina Dettwiler Product Marketing

XD Bridge ST in the Real World: Architectures That Deliver Decision Advantage

We know from our last post that decision advantage is not just about collecting data—it is about getting the right data to the right place, at the right time, without breaking t...
January 20, 2026