Home / server / Questions / 1076697
In Process
jkoop
Asked: 2021-09-06 09:55:22 +0800 CST

user that exists doesn't exist when setting chroot with usermod

  • 772

This is with Ubuntu Server 20.04. Here's my terminal session:

joek@comp1:/home/user4$ sudo usermod -R /home/user4 user4
usermod: user 'user4' does not exist
joek@comp1:/home/user4$ sudo useradd user4
useradd: user 'user4' already exists
joek@comp1:/home/user4$ grep user4 /etc/passwd
user4:1010:1011::/home/user4:/bin/sh
joek@comp1:/home/user4$ grep user4 etc/passwd
user4:1010:1011::/home/user4:/bin/sh

I couldn't find an answer anywhere. How can I chroot the user into /home/user4?

Edit:

I haven't created a chroot. I only have a directory with /bin, /home, etc.

The user is used by rsync on someone else's computer to send backups to my computer. I don't want them to have access to everything on my computer.

ubuntu usermod

1 Answers

  1. The -R flag on chroot, runs everything inside a chroot environment, it says the user does not exist because it is looking for the passwd file inside /home/user4/etc/ which probably does not exist.

    The command you want is probably sudo usermod -d /home/user4 user4 to change the home directory.

    To enforce a sandboxed environment where the user see's /home/user4 as their own root path is not managed by the passwd file or usermod command.

    Some more information here.

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BasicChroot

    • 2