/var/spool/mail/user: Permission denied
Rob Gibson
My user account that has been working fine is getting the message :
/var/spool/mail/rgibson: Permission denied
The permissions are
1 drw-rw---- 2 root mail 1024 Oct 8 08:43 mail
246 -rw-rw---- 1 rgibson mail 249968 Oct 8 07:58 mail/rgibson
What account should own /var/spool/mail?
I am a confused linux newbie.
Remi Guyomarch
In article <53dn89$j...@news.internetmci.com>,
I think you should have /var/spool/mail world readable at least :
chmod g+r /var/spool/mail
Note that I don't know if it's a security hole or not. It's at least a
privacy hole. If /var/spool/mail is word-readable (that is, if
everyone can list the directory), everyone can know when you receive
mail and how much you receive, even if they can't see the content.
--
Remi Guyomarch
Montargis, FRANCE
rgu...@valcofim.fr
Evan Jeffrey
Remi Guyomarch (rgu...@valcofim.fr) wrote:
: In article <53dn89$j...@news.internetmci.com>,
My /var/spool/mail directory is rwxrwxr-x. The problem might also be in you
mail utilities. Whatever program gets you mail needs to be at least setgid
mail, and possibly setuid root.
Evan Jeffrey
erje...@artsci.wustl.edu
Henrik Davidsen
Rob Gibson wrote:
>
> My user account that has been working fine is getting the message :
> /var/spool/mail/rgibson: Permission denied
>
> The permissions are
> 1 drw-rw---- 2 root mail 1024 Oct 8 08:43 mail
> 246 -rw-rw---- 1 rgibson mail 249968 Oct 8 07:58 mail/rgibson
>
> What account should own /var/spool/mail?
> I am a confused linux newbie.
Check your mail program. Permissions should look like:
-r-xr-sr-x /bin/mail
Read the manual pages about chmod.
Kind regards
Henrik Davidsen
h...@support.cs.icl.dk
Graham C. Hughes
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rgi...@gcomm.com (Rob Gibson) writes:
Interesting that no one else seems to have noticed this:
> My user account that has been working fine is getting the message :
> /var/spool/mail/rgibson: Permission denied
>
> The permissions are
> 1 drw-rw---- 2 root mail 1024 Oct 8 08:43 mail
> 246 -rw-rw---- 1 rgibson mail 249968 Oct 8 07:58 mail/rgibson
>
> What account should own /var/spool/mail?
> I am a confused linux newbie.
If you've gotten the permissions on the /var/spool/mail directory
correct, the difficulty is that no one (including you, root, and any
mail programs) can cd into /var/spool/mail, let alone read stuff from
there.
/var/spool/mail has to have all the execute bits set so people can cd
to it. Try
chmod 0775 /var/spool/mail
as root, and if that doesn't work, try contacting me privately.
- --
Graham Hughes (graham...@resnet.ucsb.edu)
http://A-abe.resnet.ucsb.edu/~graham/ for HTML
``Unix is many things to many people, but | finger gra...@A-abe.resnet
it's never been everything to anybody.'' | for PGP key
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Remi Guyomarch
In article <4eie35.9m1.ln@localhost>,
rgu...@valcofim.fr (Remi Guyomarch) writes:
(I'm replying to myself)
> In article <53dn89$j...@news.internetmci.com>,
> rgi...@gcomm.com (Rob Gibson) writes:
>> My user account that has been working fine is getting the message :
>> /var/spool/mail/rgibson: Permission denied
>>
>> The permissions are
>> 1 drw-rw---- 2 root mail 1024 Oct 8 08:43 mail
>> 246 -rw-rw---- 1 rgibson mail 249968 Oct 8 07:58 mail/rgibson
>>
>> What account should own /var/spool/mail?
>> I am a confused linux newbie.
>>
>
> I think you should have /var/spool/mail world readable at least :
>
> chmod g+r /var/spool/mail
Oops ! A typo. I meant :
chmod a+r /var/spool/mail
Matthew Delaney
Remi Guyomarch (rgu...@valcofim.fr) in article ve <4eie35.9m1.ln@localhost> on Tue, 8 Oct 1996 23:52:04 +0200 wrote:
: In article <53dn89$j...@news.internetmci.com>,
: rgi...@gcomm.com (Rob Gibson) writes:
: > My user account that has been working fine is getting the message :
: > /var/spool/mail/rgibson: Permission denied
: >
: > The permissions are
: > 1 drw-rw---- 2 root mail 1024 Oct 8 08:43 mail
: > 246 -rw-rw---- 1 rgibson mail 249968 Oct 8 07:58 mail/rgibson
: >
: > What account should own /var/spool/mail?
: > I am a confused linux newbie.
: >
:
: I think you should have /var/spool/mail world readable at least :
:
: chmod g+r /var/spool/mail
: Note that I don't know if it's a security hole or not. It's at least a
: privacy hole. If /var/spool/mail is word-readable (that is, if
: everyone can list the directory), everyone can know when you receive
: mail and how much you receive, even if they can't see the content.
It would have to be this, otherwise, unless the mail program was SETUID,
nobody could read their mail. On the system I'm on now, /var/mail is +x
for all, and not +r. This allows you to access the files (each belongs
to their respective user).
--
Matthew Delaney N2MDB del...@j51.com ax.25: n2mdb@k2sk.#eny.ny.usa.na
Technical Engineer - @North. IMP - Sunfire MUD (mud.j51.com:4000)
Personal - http://www.j51.com/~delaney @North Group - http://www.chsn.org
New York City Metro Skywarn Observer Catch me on irc:NewNet as delaney
Dr. Who
Remi Guyomarch (rgu...@valcofim.fr) wrote:
: In article <53dn89$j...@news.internetmci.com>,
: rgi...@gcomm.com (Rob Gibson) writes:
: > My user account that has been working fine is getting the message :
: > /var/spool/mail/rgibson: Permission denied
: >
: > The permissions are
: > 1 drw-rw---- 2 root mail 1024 Oct 8 08:43 mail
: > 246 -rw-rw---- 1 rgibson mail 249968 Oct 8 07:58 mail/rgibson
: >
: > What account should own /var/spool/mail?
: > I am a confused linux newbie.
: >
: I think you should have /var/spool/mail world readable at least :
: chmod g+r /var/spool/mail
: Note that I don't know if it's a security hole or not. It's at least a
: privacy hole. If /var/spool/mail is word-readable (that is, if
: everyone can list the directory), everyone can know when you receive
: mail and how much you receive, even if they can't see the content.
This is not a privacy or security hole. The directory SHOULD be world
readable, but it's contents should NOT. It's up to the mail program to
create the contents according to the correct permissions.
In my /var/spool/mail, the contents are all -rw-rw----
--
------------------------------------------------
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