Linux changing permissions for /home ?

jalperin · 08-28-2004, 05:12 PM

I'm using Mandrake 10.0. I have set up an Apache virtual host that is served from /home/jalperin/music and after getting Forbidden errors when trying to access with a web browser, I changed permissions on /home and home/jeff as shown:

Code:

Directory     Original    Changed
/home         rwxr-x--x   rwxr-xr-x
/home/jeff    rwx------   rwxr-xr-x

Everything worked fine after the change. The odd thing is that every half hour or so, the permissions on these two directories are set back to the original state (and I start getting Forbidden errors again).

Why is this happening and how can I stop it?

Thanks. --Jeff

jalperin · 08-28-2004, 08:13 PM

After rooting around in some of the logs, it looks like there's a Mandrake security program, msec, which is run hourly by a cron job. msec is configured to reset permissions for various directories and files if they're different than it expects. draksec is a program to modify and view these permissions.

NiallSOS · 08-31-2004, 11:30 AM

I've been having the same problems with Mandrake 9.2.

I've looked at DrakSec and disabled the option "Check permissions of files in the users home" but it has had no effect - it still continues to change my permissions for me. Even when I set the Security level to poor (which should mean that it does no security checks) it still changes my permissions.

I'd really like to have a secure, but usable system. Even when I change the permissions as root, Mandrake overwrites my choices. It's just not usable - please help!

jalperin · 08-31-2004, 12:59 PM

Try this: Click on "Add a rule", then enter the permissions you want for the directory or file you want them applied to. These "custom" permissions take precedence over the default ones which are causing you problems.

Moses420ca · 08-31-2004, 01:38 PM

you're ether running permissions level 4 or 5. (higher or paranoid). You need to edit /usr/share/msec/perm.4 or /usr/share/msec/perm.5 respectfully.