Archive for the tag 'sticky'

Security - verify that All World-Writable Directories Have Sticky Bits Set

Locate any directories in local partitions which are world-writable and do not have their sticky bits set. The following command will discover and print these. Run it once for each local partition:

# find PARTITION -xdev -type d \( -perm -0002 -a ! -perm -1000 \) -print

If this command produces any output, fix each reported directory /dir using the command:

# chmod +t /dir

When the so-called “sticky bit” is set on a directory, only the owner of a given file may remove that file from the directory. Without the sticky bit, any user with write access to a directory may remove any file in the directory. Setting the sticky bit prevents users from removing each other’s files. In cases where there is no reason for a directory to be world-writable, a better solution is to remove that permission rather than to set the sticky bit.

restricted deletion flag or sticky bit is a single bit

The restricted deletion flag or sticky bit is a single bit, whose interpretation depends on the file type. For directories, it prevents unprivileged users from removing or renaming a file in the directory unless they own the file or the directory; this is called the restricted deletion flag for the directory, and is commonly found on world-writable directories like /tmp.

For regular files on some older systems, the bit saves the program’s text image on the swap device so it will load more quickly when run; this is called the sticky bit.

The letters rwxXst select file mode bits for the affected users: read (r), write (w), execute (or search for directories) (x), execute/search only if the file is a directory or already has execute permission for some user (X), set user or group ID on execution (s), restricted deletion flag or sticky bit (t). Instead of one or more of these let-ters, you can specify exactly one of the letters ugo: the permissions granted to the user who owns the file (u), the permissions granted to other users who are members of the file’s group (g), and the permissions granted to users that are in neither of the two preceding categories (o).

A numeric mode is from one to four octal digits (0-7), derived by adding up the bits with values 4, 2, and 1. Omitted digits are assumed to be leading zeros. The first digit selects the set user ID (4) and set group ID (2) and restricted deletion or sticky (1) attributes. The second digit selects permissions for the user who owns the file: read (4), write (2), and execute (1); the third selects permissions for other users in the file’s group, with the same values; and the fourth for other users not in the file’s group, with the same values.

Only the person who created the file within a directory may delete it, even if other people have write permission. You can turn it on by typing:

chmod 1700 somedirectory (where 1 = sticky bit)