How to Check SELinux Status on RHEL 6

In this post, i will share on how to check Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) status on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6). SELinux is a Linux feature that provides a mechanism for supporting access control security policies in the Linux kernel. First method to check the SELinux status is using sestatus command. The sestatus command returns the SELinux status and the SELinux policy being used on Linux RHEL 6 server as per below example :

1. Simply run this command to check the SELinux status on your RHEL 6 :

[root@rhel6 ~]# /usr/sbin/sestatus
SELinux status:                 disabled

or

[root@rhel6 ~]# sestatus
SELinux status:                 disabled

2. Alternatively, you can run this command :

[root@rhel6 ~]# cat /etc/selinux/config

# 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 these two values:
#     targeted - Targeted processes are protected,
#     mls - Multi Level Security protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

In above /etc/selinux/config, SELINUX is set to SELINUX=disabled.

If enable, it will be like below :

[root@rhel6 ~]# cat /etc/selinux/config

# 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=permissive
# SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
#     targeted - Targeted processes are protected,
#     mls - Multi Level Security protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

If SELinux is enabled, it will look like SELINUX=permissive