MEPIS Community Forum

Hi, and good day to all.
I'd like to know if there is a way to password-protect a folder so that only the people who know the password for that folder will be able to access it? I would like to do this, if possible, instead of creating different user-accounts.

no need to use passwords. you can simply create a user group, assign users to that group and then assign ownership of that entire folder to the group

Excuse me for asking (as I am an eternal newbie) but do you mean create a new user AND group or just a new group. Better yet, could you give me a simple run thru of the whole thing?

Just a new group.

The only security issue is that anyone with the root password wouldbe able to get access presumably?

Probably total overkill for your needs, but http://www.truecrypt.org/ might suit?

Chris

truecrypt isn't the solution to the stated problem.

and, no, i won't give a walk through... better still, i'm including the link to the wiki portion that deals with this. http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php? ... ermissions

To test this out, I went to System > KUser and created a new group called steve1.

Then I went to Dolphin and created a new (hidden) directory in my home directory: /home/steve/.grouptest.

Then I right-clicked on .grouptest, clicked on Properties, then the Permissions tab. I changed the permissions to:

Owner: Forbidden
Group: Can View & Modify Content
Others: Forbidden

I also opened Dolphin as root and changed the group for .grouptest to "steve1."

Now, as the normal user ("steve"), I can't access the .grouptest directory, and can't see its contents. I can get into it via Dolphin (right-click, Open With > Dolphin as su).

I think this effectively password protects the directory and its contents, unless the user knows the root password. But if the user knows the root password, I think any file or directory on the system is open anyway, right?

But I don't know if this is the cleanest way to go about it...

Indeed, but creating a new group isn't either. The requirement was:

only the people who know the password for that folder will be able to access it

but if you were to use the approach of creating a new group, anyone who new the root password could access it surely?

Chris

Yeah, that's how it looks to me.

but by using groups, you don't need a password and you certainly don't have to give out the root password.

any user that is part of the group would simply have access because the group would have been assigned ownership...

that's what the linux permission system is for.

That approach would certainly work in some situations.

I was thinking more of a family situation where let's say "Dad" is the administrator, and "Son" wants to keep a folder of images private. Son setting up a group would be no help because Dad has the root password. Or am I missing something? (Entirely possible!)

Chris