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How to read cron log ?

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# 1  
Old 09-28-2015
How to read cron log ?
Hi everyone,

I have set up a cron job and it ran as i have expected, however, i unable to determined whether it was executed by a regular user (rml5723 in this case) or by root. My intention was for it to run as root (notice the 's' bit set on the script), the script itself is owned by the regular user. As you can see per below cut/paste from /var/adm/cron/log, its command was executed but i am not able to determine who actually ran the script. I have been looking for documentation that might explain how to read this cron log but unable to find anythinng, your help is greatly appreciated.


Code:
>  CMD: /home/rml5723/testcron > /home/rml5723/logs
>  rml5723 6768 c Mon Sep 28 11:30:00 PDT 2015
<  rml5723 6768 c Mon Sep 28 11:30:01 PDT 2015


$ whoami
rml5723

$ pwd
/home/rml5723
$ ll
total 16
-rwsr-xr-x   1 rml5723    users           38 Sep 28 10:01 testcron
-rw-rw-rw-   1 rml5723    users            0 Dec 15  2014 testing


root@some_server[/var/adm/cron]
# cat cron.allow
root
rml5723


$  cat testcron
ll /home/rml5723 
echo "HELLO"

$ crontab -l
5,10,15,20,25,30 0 * * * /home/rml5723/testcron > /home/rml5723/logs

$ cat logs
total 32
-rw-r--r--   1 rml5723    users            0 Sep 28 11:30 logs
-rwsr-xr-x   1 rml5723    users           31 Sep 28 11:20 testcron
-rw-rw-rw-   1 rml5723    users            0 Dec 15  2014 testing
-rw-r-----   1 rml5723    users           31 Sep 28 11:20
HELLO

Thanks!
# 2  
Old 09-28-2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by rachael
My intention was for it to run as root (notice the 's' bit set on the script), the script itself is owned by the regular user.
Sticky-bits don't work on scripts.

Even if they did, it wouldn't run a user-owned script as root, but as the user that owns it. Otherwise anyone could create a script that would run as root.

If you want something in crontab to be run as root, I suggest telling cron so by putting it in root's crontab. This has the advantage that you're not opening the door for anyone to run that script as root, you're only permitting cron to do it.

Another way to manage this would be using sudo.
Last edited by Corona688; 09-28-2015 at 07:16 PM..
# 3  
Old 09-28-2015
Hello Corona688,

Thanks for your quick response. Our internal syst admin policy is we don't put application cron jobs in root's crontab, we separate them. Maybe i did not mention earlier, i put this cron job in the regular user's (rml5723 in this case) cron tab.

So if I provide this user sudo privs, i'd remove the 's' bit, and then keep the job in its user's crontab but how would i integrate the below sudoers with cron? It will need to run weekly.

The syntax in the sudoers file would be like

Code:
# Host alias specification
Host_Alias SERVERS=abc124

# User alias specification
User_Alias   Developer=rml5723

Developer  SERVER = (root) NOPASSWD:/home/rml5723/testcron

Again thanks!

Rachael
Last edited by jim mcnamara; 09-29-2015 at 05:07 AM..
# 4  
Old 09-28-2015
Instead of doing /path/to/script.sh, you'd do sudo /path/to/script.sh Otherwise you can use the line you had.
# 5  
Old 09-28-2015
Hi Corona688,

Do you mean put the below line in the user's crontab?

Code:
sudo /path/to/script.sh

Thanks,

Rachael

Moderator's Comments:
Mod Comment Please use code tags
Last edited by jim mcnamara; 09-29-2015 at 05:08 AM..
# 6  
Old 09-29-2015
suid-root is not the correct method (and neither the suid-root sudo)!
What OS do you have?
Code:
uname -sr

# 7  
Old 09-29-2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by rachael
Hi Corona688,

Do you mean put the below line in the user's crontab?

Code:
sudo /path/to/script.sh

No. I meant the line you had before, with 'sudo script' instead of 'script.
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