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Fake user adm and domain logs?

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:46 pm
by viraladmin
Okay so inside /var/log it seems almost every file and directory is listed as group www-data and user adm.

Problem 1: user adm doesn't exist. Why are all the logs listed under a user that does not exist?

Problem 2: no users cannot access any log files. They get a "failed to stat" error when the try.

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Now if I chown them to the username, I cannot switch them back as the account adm - is not real.

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I have tried changing permissions and usernames:

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I have checked the symlinks:

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Yet still when downloading an error log the user gets:

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Only root seems to be able to access logs.

This is a default install using the base options (the latest version), no special configuration ubuntu 16.04

Re: Fake user adm and domain logs?

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 9:04 am
by tjebbeke
adm: Group adm is used for system monitoring tasks. Members of this group can read many log files in /var/log, and can use xconsole. Historically, /var/log was /usr/adm (and later /var/adm), thus the name of the group.
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1318346

Re: Fake user adm and domain logs?

Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2017 10:24 am
by viraladmin
That would be correct.... except you'll note from my screenshot the user is adm not the group - which is www-data

And still doesn't solve the "user can't access log files".

Re: Fake user adm and domain logs?

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:56 pm
by viraladmin
Has anyone ever found a solution to this problem as every time my logs are rotated I have to manually go through and again issue the commands:

Code: Select all

chown www-data:username /var/log/apache2/domains/whatever.domain.error.log

Code: Select all

chown www-data:username /var/log/apache2/domains/whatever.domain.log


This is getting more and more problematic with each new user.

Re: Fake user adm and domain logs?

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:23 am
by noogen
You're right. I never really pay attention to this. I usually just view the log from the panel and not really accessing the file. Probably a good bug to report. I'm on Ubuntu. The actual file under /var/log/apache2/domains is own by www-data:adm but the file under the user logs folder is root:root when rotated.

The log that was not rotated kept the original permission as user:user