Howto: Secure /tmp and /dev/shm partitions

How to secure /tmp and /dev/shm partitions?

It is highly recommended to mount /tmp and /dev/shm partitions in noexec,nosuid mode in order to prevent files been executed under those partitions. To mount /tmp and /dev/shm in noexec,nosuid more, edit the /etc/fstab file and

search for the word

"defaults" 

in front of the 2 partitions and replace them with

rw,noexec,nosuid

The entry should look like the following:

tmpfs /dev/shm  tmpfs   rw,noexec,nosuid  0 0

and same for /tmp partition as well.

Save the /etc/fstab file. You now need to remount the partitions for the changes to take effect. Execute the following remount commands:

root@host [~]# mount -o remount /tmp
root@host [~]# mount -o remount /dev/shm

You can now check the mounted partitions using the command:

root@host [~]# mount

Related Links:

How to secure /tmp on a VPS?
This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 and is filed under Linux Administration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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