Restrict user

sunhui · 09-21-2006, 10:04 AM

I want to control a user can only access a specific directory eg. /tmp and /home , and can't access the other directory even the general directory eg. /usr , /var , what can I do ? I tried ibsh , but this method allow user access HOME directory ONLY , if I want the user can access a list of specific directory , what can i do ? thx

macemoneta · 09-21-2006, 01:05 PM

Not much. Restricted shells tend to be very hard and very time consuming to lock down properly. In the end, you will effectively remove access to most of the software, making the shell nearly useless.

It's much more effective to use proper permissions and file placement. For higher security, you can use a mandatory access control system like SELinux. In that way, the user's access to system directories becomes a non-issue.

matthewg42 · 09-21-2006, 06:11 PM

You can make a user which can't read /usr if you like, but what would be the point? Most basic commands reside in /usr/bin, /var is used by many programs for lockfiles and many use /var/tmp.

You might be able to implement it with ACLs, but it'd probably be simpler with groups.

Maybe SELinux can do something like this (restrict specific users to an approved list of programs)?