From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Yuri Csapo Subject: Re: "spontaneous" permissions changes Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:30:37 -0600 Message-ID: <4A96ECED.3040004@exchange.mines.edu> References: <4A95A44A.50305@exchange.mines.edu> <830324620908270522q5582262bsf59187357f269d23@mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------020808050209020406040308" Return-path: In-Reply-To: <830324620908270522q5582262bsf59187357f269d23@mail.gmail.com> Sender: linux-admin-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: To: "Daniel A. Avelino" Cc: Yuri Csapo , linux-admin --------------020808050209020406040308 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Daniel, Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately regulations don't allow me to divulge configuration files. What specifically were you looking for in /etc/fstab? I will be performing the tests you suggest soon; I can't do them right now because the box is under heavy use. Maybe this weekend. Thanks again! --Yuri Daniel A. Avelino wrote: > Yuri, > > could you show us your /etc/fstab file? > Could you perform some tests, like mount this partition, list permissions so > umount the partition and list permissions again? > > On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 6:08 PM, Yuri Csapo > wrote: > Hi all, I have a strange situation I wish someone could help me with. This is the setup: > > - Virtual machine running the latest VM under ESXi > - VM has one processor, 2 GB RAM, 1 GB swap > - Ubuntu 8.04 LTS > - The virtual host runs only this VM > - Virtual host connects to a Lefthand Networks (now HP) SAN through 1 GB copper ethernet and iSCSI > - VM has a 1 TB volume from the SAN that looks like a SCSI drive to Linux (/dev/sdc) > - sdc is formatted as one big ext3 partition (sdc1) > - sdc1 is exported both as an NFS resource and a SMB share (via Samba) > - Authentication is Kerberos and authorization is local, if that matters > > The permissions on that partition's mount point, usually 755, changed suddenly to 400. I have looked at sudo logs, root's and all admins' history files and I can find no evidence of someone changing those permissions or of tampering with the logs. > > Physical access to the box requires the right keycard; logon (ssh) access to the box is restricted to sysadmins and support personel only; the root password is a 32 char long random string that lives in an encrypted repository on my iPod Touch. There are only 2 people, myself included, with full sudo rights; there are another 5 people with sudo rights to a number of administration things including chmod. > > This is a state university and it happened on the first day of classes. > > My questions: > > - Did I look everywhere I should be looking to find evidence of foul play? > - Does anyone know of anything in this setup that could trigger a seemingly spontaneous permissions change like that? > > Thanks, > > -- > Yuri Csapo > Academic Computing & Networking > Colorado School of Mines > CT-256 > Phone: (303) 273-3503 > Fax: (303) 273-3475 > Email: ycsapo@mines.edu > > Please use the following link to open a service request: > http://helpdesk.mines.edu > =========================================== > With a PC, I always felt limited > by the software available. > On Unix, I am limited only by my knowledge. > --Peter J. Schoenster > > -- Yuri Csapo Academic Computing & Networking Colorado School of Mines CT-256 Phone: (303) 273-3503 Fax: (303) 273-3475 Email: ycsapo@mines.edu Please use the following link to open a service request: http://helpdesk.mines.edu =========================================== With a PC, I always felt limited by the software available. On Unix, I am limited only by my knowledge. --Peter J. Schoenster --------------020808050209020406040308 Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset="utf-8"; name="ycsapo.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="ycsapo.vcf" begin:vcard fn:Yuri Csapo n:Csapo;Yuri org:Colorado School of Mines;CCIT email;internet:ycsapo@mines.edu title:System Administrator tel;work:(303) 273-3503 x-mozilla-html:FALSE version:2.1 end:vcard --------------020808050209020406040308--