[PLUG] Everything you wanted to know about Linux security and aren't afraid to ask (was: Linux /Windows virus appears)

Anthony Schlemmer aschlemm at attbi.com
Mon Jun 10 02:33:12 UTC 2002


Opps I pressed "*" not "."...See I can't type sometimes...:) I took out 
all of the subdirectories within my home directory but left all of my 
.xxxx (dot) files intact so it didn't really remove my home directory 
per se. With all of my working directories gone it really just as bad a 
taking out the entire directory. Now it is possible to take out your 
home directory completely if you do an "rm -rf <user> from /home.

Tony

On Sunday 09 June 2002 19:24 pm, Anthony Schlemmer wrote:
> I was cleaning up some subdirectories within my home directory.
> Somehow my fingers got crossed up and I pressed "." rather than
> entering the subdirectory name and then hit the <return> key. There
> was no going back from there.
>
> I tend to alias "rm" to "rm -i" now so I can't make this mistake
> again. It's just one of those things that happens. I've certainly
> seen people nuke an entire subdirectory by accident over the years
> and nuking a home directory isn't much different. If you're cleaning
> up a directory within your home directory and if you're one level up
> boom! your home directory is gone instead of the subdirectory.
>
> I think the best way to avoid this is to always specify the directory
> by name that you want to remove. Don't use "*" or "." as that can
> nuke your current working directory which might be your home
> directory.
>
> Tony
>
> On Sunday 09 June 2002 19:11 pm, Neil Anuskiewicz wrote:
> > On Sun, 9 Jun 2002, Anthony Schlemmer wrote:
> > > You don't even need a virus to get step 3 to occur. I'm man
> > > enough to admit to the fact that I accidently "rm -rf'ed" my home
> > > directory off of a system at work one time. Thankfully we had a
> > > great SA that had our server setup to take nightly backups of our
> > > home directories so I didn't lose anything.
> >
> > Just curious, how did you do it? I mean, what were trying to do at
> > the time?

-- 
Anthony Schlemmer
aschlemm at attbi.com
>>>>This machine was last rebooted:  12 days 19:54 hours ago<<





More information about the PLUG mailing list