MTA unable to start due to wrong /dev/null permissions

MTA unable to start due to wrong /dev/null permissions

   KB 22604        Last updated on 2016-04-22  




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Problem

There are two symptoms that may indicate that:

1. Switch to a zimbra user results in the following output:

-bash: /dev/null: Permission denied
-bash: /dev/null: Permission denied
-bash: /dev/null: Permission denied
-bash: /dev/null: Permission denied
-bash: /dev/null: Permission denied
-bash: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 138: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 143: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 148: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 153: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 158: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 163: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 168: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 173: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 178: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 220: dpkg: command not found
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 226: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/libexec/get_plat_tag.sh: line 263: /dev/null: Permission denied 
Can't open perl script "/dev/null": Permission denied
-bash: /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/bin/zmswatchctl: line 45: /dev/null: Permission denied
Starting swatch.../opt/zimbra/bin/zmswatchctl: line 69: cannot redirect standard input from /dev/null: Permission denied
/opt/zimbra/bin/zmswatchctl: line 45: /dev/null: Permission denied
failed.

2. The second symptom is that MTA will not start.


Cause

The problem might be caused by different things. One could be that the permissions are changed during boot time by a security software. Another cause might be that udev is missing a rule, or the rule granting rights to the /dev/null file is changed due to an upgrade of udev to systed-tools.

Troubleshooting

1. We can check in /lib/udev/rules.d the 50-udev-default.rules file (CentOS release 6.7), and make sure there is a line like that:

KERNEL=="null|zero|full|random|urandom", MODE="0666"

2. Can create persistent audit watch rule, in order to determine whether anything is changing /dev/null permissions after boot.

a) Set up a persistent audit watch in /etc/audit/audit.rules which will capture any write or attribute changes that are made to /dev/null. Include a key such as null-watch in order to easily search later for audit messages related to this rule. Please note, this rule needs to be included at some point after the -D rule at the top of that file which removes rules initially before proceeding systematically through the file. Ideally after the line: "# Feel free to add below this line. See auditctl man page".

add the following line:

-w /dev/null -p wa -k null-watch

b) Once this is in place, restart the auditd service in order to query the rules file and initiate this watch:

service auditd restart

c) Check that the rule is in place:

# auditctl -l
LIST_RULES: exit,always watch=/dev/null perm=wa key=null-watch

d) Then check that auditing is enabled:

# auditctl -s
AUDIT_STATUS: enabled=1 flag=1 pid=1826 rate_limit=0 backlog_limit=320 lost=0 backlog=0

e) If not, enable auditing and ensure that the auditd service is configured to run persistently, in the appropriate run level:

auditctl -e 1
chkconfig --list auditd

f) Reboot the system

g) After the reboot, if the /dev/null has wrong permissions, check for any audit messages related to the watch using the following command:

ls -al /dev/null 
ausearch -i -k null-watch






Resolution


Since UDEV isn't correctly changing the permissions for the current /dev/null, it might be possible to try re-creating /dev/null using the mknod command.

As root, delete the currently existing /dev/null:

Raw

  1. rm /dev/null

Recreate it with the mknod command:

Raw

  1. mknod -m 0666 /dev/null c 1 3

The /dev/null file should now have with the correct permissions.

If the problem persists after a reboot, then follow the steps in the 'Diagnostic Steps' section of this article, in order to set up an audit watch which may help determine whether /dev/null permissions are being changed after boot.

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