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Adding users question

 
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# 1  
Old 05-31-2009
Adding users question
Hello there,

I want to add new users to my system, so, being logged in as root I do useradd -m user_name, and the new user is added to the system. The problem is that it has more privileges than I expected. If I do su user_name then I am allowed to do cat /etc/passwd , so it is possible to see what the passwd file contains, but I don't want that to be possible. I just need to add a user with minimal privileges possible.Furthermore , how can I get the new user restricted to it's home directory, so that it wont acces other users folders and files, without modifing the permissions of the other users folders and files (that would be a major job) ?


Many thanks
# 2  
Old 05-31-2009
What OS and version are you using?
# 3  
Old 05-31-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by help.goes.here
Hello there,

I want to add new users to my system, so, being logged in as root I do useradd -m user_name, and the new user is added to the system. The problem is that it has more privileges than I expected. If I do su user_name then I am allowed to do cat /etc/passwd , so it is possible to see what the passwd file contains, but I don't want that to be possible. I just need to add a user with minimal privileges possible.Furthermore , how can I get the new user restricted to it's home directory, so that it wont acces other users folders and files, without modifing the permissions of the other users folders and files (that would be a major job) ?


Many thanks
As far as I know all users can read /etc/passwd, but not write to it directly; a user can only wite to it indirectly using passwd, chsh, chfn. You cannot get the user restricted to his or her home directory only if it is about telnet/ssh access, but you can restrict him or her to the home directory if you mean ftp access.
# 4  
Old 05-31-2009
I am using Ubuntu 9.04 .Yes I know the user can not write to /etc/passwd but reading it is also an unwanted thing.I want that the home folder of the user to be a sort of a jailhouse. Any more opinions ?
# 5  
Old 05-31-2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by help.goes.here
I am using Ubuntu 9.04 .Yes I know the user can not write to /etc/passwd but reading it is also an unwanted thing.I want that the home folder of the user to be a sort of a jailhouse. Any more opinions ?
I know that with "jailhouse" from FTP servers, there is such a possibility, but with telnet/ssh it seems to be impossible.
If you want you can create a temp telnet/ssh account for me on your machine and we'll look together what is able to be done on your machine. I use Debian, Ubuntu is similar to it.
 
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