UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

Is there a way to password protect a dir in linux ??

I need to protect the tmp folder of a JBoss server instance running on Linux RedHat os.

I cannot change permissions cause, the root password is shared and a number of people login via that.

also if possible can i restrict the root user from accessing a dir location , i.e can i restrict access to the dir "test" , hence stop "cd /root/temp/test". test may be accessible by providing a password/passphrase.

Thankx

Sorry, no. There is no way to password protect a directory in Linux in the way you describe.

My recommendation is to work towards restricting root access to only those who absolutely need it, and use sudo to allow those who need root access to execute those commands that they need. This would, of course, be a long term process but it would ultimately improve your security.

You cannot prevent root from accessing anything ever. Hence, giving out the root password to a lot of people is a really bad idea.

Your best hope is encryption. There are encrypted filesystems like eCryptfs. Rather than explain it try reading:
How to set up an encrypted filesystem in several easy steps

You can also encrypt the individual files in the directory itself if you want.

Decryption requires a password.