Which of the following commands should the administrator use to resolve the issue without granting unnecessary permissions?

A server administrator receives a report that Ann, a new user, is unable to save a file to her home directory on a server.

The administrator checks Ann’s home directory permissions and discovers the following: dr-xr-xr– /home/Ann

Which of the following commands should the administrator use to resolve the issue without granting unnecessary permissions?
A . chmod 777 /home/Ann
B . chmod 666 /home/Ann
C . chmod 711 /home/Ann
D . chmod 754 /home/Ann

View Answer

Answer: D

Explanation:

The administrator should use the command chmod 754 /home/Ann to resolve the issue without granting unnecessary permissions. The chmod command is used to change the permissions of files and directories on a Linux server. The permissions are represented by three numbers, each ranging from 0 to 7, that correspond to the read ®, write (w), and execute (x) permissions for the owner, group, and others respectively. The numbers are calculated by adding up the values of each permission: r = 4, w = 2, x = 1. For example, 7 means rwx (4 + 2 + 1), 6 means rw- (4 + 2), 5 means r-x (4 + 1), etc. In this case, Ann’s home directory has the permissions dr-xr-xrC, which means that only the owner (d) can read ® and execute (x) the directory, and the group and others can only read ® and execute (x) but not write (w) to it. This prevents Ann from saving files to her home directory. To fix this issue, the administrator should grant write permission to the owner by using chmod 754 /home/Ann, which means that the owner can read ®, write (w), and execute (x) the directory, the group can read ® and execute (x) but not write (w) to it, and others can only read ® but not write (w) or execute (x) it. This way, Ann can save files to her home directory without giving unnecessary permissions to others.

Reference: https://linuxize.com/post/what-does-chmod-777-mean/