How to Create Restricted Guest Account

WetGeek

elfprince You can restrict you home directory access to you only, by changing the permissions.

That makes sense. What does't make sense is why restricted access isn't the default. Does root have to restrict access the same way?

This has been a really educational issue for me, after using Linux for all these years. I guess I've always used it on a single-user system, though, because where I've worked there's always been a Windows network. I've never had a reason to question how user security works by default on Linux.

elfprince

WetGeek A root or superuser account can view and perform any operations on a multi user unix-like os.
A user can block access, or execute, ability to his own directory by changing the 'rwx' bits in the directory's permission setting.

WetGeek

elfprince A user can block access, or execute, ability to his own directory by changing the 'rwx' bits in the directory's permission setting.

Yes. I've always known about root or SU privileges. I just assumed that one user's /home directory and its contents would be off-limits to other users except root or SU.

I'm not amazed that this can be achieved by changing the home directory's permissions, but am amazed that they're not private by default. I guess I never felt the need to check that. Seems like one should have to change the permissions to allow other users to access ones content, not to keep them out of ones home folder.

Thanks for the education!

elfprince

WetGeek Yes, the current permissions are liberal. Then again, Solus is an OS for home/personal use. Maybe that is why?

WetGeek

elfprince Then again, Solus is an OS for home/personal use. Maybe that is why?

Could be. However, I'm not sure what would be harmed by keeping home folders private by default, whether at home or at work.

Now, I'm curious whether it is a Solus default or a Linux default. If I get bored enough on this holiday weekend, I may try some different distro VMs to see how it works on them. I've got lots of .ISO files to choose from.

I guess it should be obvious that if you want to keep your private files private, you need to change the permissions on your home folder. It just wasn't all that obvious to me.

noise617

elfprince Yes, the current permissions are liberal. Then again, Solus is an OS for home/personal use. Maybe that is why?

My five cents as a regular user: I would say that, on the contrary, it would be more intuitive if a non-administrator could only view his own folder. Not other users' folders and especially not / and admin's Home.

The thinking behind this is that I create a separate user account so the guest stays sandboxed and cannot access my files. With the current settings, however, it doesn't make much sense to create another account as access rights are liberal.

elfprince

WetGeek Yes, I would be curious if other Linux distros have same ' open setup' by default.

EbonJaeger

My user account doesn't have read set for other people, but newly created accounts from system settings does have both read and execute set, regardless of if they are standard or administrator user accounts. I have no idea why that is, or where it's even set.

Pop_OS doesn't set read or any other permissions for other users on user home directories.

WetGeek

EbonJaeger Pop_OS doesn't set read or any other permissions for other users on user home directories.

That's the way I would have expected that ALL Linux systems would work. Until today, of course.

That tells me that it's a per-distro feature, not a Linux feature. You saved me from creating a bunch of non-Solus VMs to test that. Thanks!

I also suspect that the distros I used before I found Solus did keep home folders private to the user, so my previous assumptions were probably true based on my pre-Solus experience.

WetGeek

noise617 I discovered that the Guest may view my, administrator's, home folder. Can this account be sandboxed, so other users' files, especially those of the administrator, are invisible to the user?

Apparently, then, the bottom line is "There's no way to do that." Not by modifying the Guest user account. But you could keep ALL standard users out of those folders by changing their permissions.

I guess you could create a group for all users who are allowed to access other user's home folders and exclude Guest from that group, but that would be a bother to arrange unless there was a really serious need for it.

WetGeek

WetGeek You saved me from creating a bunch of non-Solus VMs to test that.

Although I have other things to do now, as I explore other distros in the future, this is one feature I'm going to add to my examination. This has made me curious to discover how common it is to let all users have rx access to all other users' home folders.

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