Linux Basics for Hackers

5CONTROLLING FILE AND DIRECTORY PERMISSIONS

Not every user of a single operating system should have the same level of access to files and directories. Like any professional or enterprise-level operating system, Linux has methods for securing file and directory access. This security system allows the system administrator—the root user—or the file owner to protect their files from unwanted access or tampering by granting select users permissions to read, write, or execute files. For each file and directory, we can specify the permission status for the file’s owner, for particular groups of users, and for all other users. This is a necessity in a ...