Home / ubuntu / Questions / 389408
Accepted
Pat R Ellery
Asked: 2013-12-12 11:46:20 +0800 CST

Why it is important to Securing /dev/shm and /tmp

  • 772

I see a lot of blogs talking about security and specially how to secure /dev/shm and /tmp

I would like to know why it is important to secure these folders?

security

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    /tmp and /var/tmp are supposed to be world-writable (and sticky) so that all programs and/or users can create their temporary files there. From TLDP:

    World-writable files, particularly system files, can be a security hole if a cracker gains access to your system and modifies them. Additionally, world-writable directories are dangerous, since they allow a cracker to add or delete files as he wishes. To locate all world-writable files on your system, use the following command:

    sudo find / -perm -2 ! -type l -ls

    and be sure you know why those files are writable. In the normal course of operation, several files will be world-writable, including some from /dev, and symbolic links, thus the ! -type l which excludes these from the previous find command.

    • 1