[ale] I did a bad bad thing...

Fletch fletch at phydeaux.org
Thu Dec 6 12:40:10 EST 2001


>>>>> "Kevin" == Kevin Krumwiede <krum at smyrnacable.net> writes:

    Kevin> This morning I accidentally typed 'chown -R apache.apache
    Kevin> *' as root.  I don't know if I was in /, or if chown always
    Kevin> takes '*' to mean '/*', but anyhow, I screwed things up

[...]

        The shell expands wildcards (this isn't wintendo), so if it
happened to stuff in / you were in /.

    Kevin> Everything seems to work just fine now, except that I
    Kevin> cannot su to root.  I can log in as root, just can't su.

        Probably because in the process of chown'ing everything the
setuid bit on su (and many other things got wiped out).

    Kevin> Any ideas?  Are there any files in /etc, /bin, and /sbin
    Kevin> that should NOT be owned by root?


        You *might* could get everything back as it was by looking at
another box with a similar distribution and resetting permissions
accordingly.  But at this point, I'd really sugguest backing up user
data and reinstalling just to make sure you don't have problems
somewhere down the road.


        And welcome to the `Used A Wildcard As Root In The Wrong
Place' club. :)

-- 
Fletch                | "If you find my answers frightening,       __`'/|
fletch at phydeaux.org   |  Vincent, you should cease askin'          \ o.O'
770 933-0600 x211(w)  |  scary questions." -- Jules                =(___)=
                      |                                               U

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