Sticky Bit: User Ownership access-right Flag in Unix

Sticky bit is a bit set in permission of a file or directory to give special access –rights to user. When we set the sticky bit for any executable file, it will remain in swap space after the process exited. It will help to reduce time of execution in repeatedly used programs. So, we can set this sticky bit for frequently used programs like editors, commands etc. So, execution of them will be faster as compared to without sticky bit.

Main important use of sticky bit is on directory, when we set sticky bit for directory then files reside in the directory can delete or rename by owner only. This is helpful not to give access for renaming or deletion to unauthorized user. When sticky bit is not set for directory then any user having permission to write and execute on directory can rename and delete files inside the directory.

Sticky bit behavior or feature changes as per operating system. Linux Kernel ignores the sticky bit on files, it considers only on directories. In HP-UX work on sticky bit as above mentioned. In AIX, if we set the sticky bit for directory then only owner can link or unlink the directory or files specified in the directory.

How to set Sticky bit on file/directory in Linux?

We will set sticky bit by chmod command. For this purpose, we can use octal mode or by its symbol ‘t’. lets go through the example.

//Check the permissions of directory sticky redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ ls -l total 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 redhat adm 4096 2013-10-24 15:36 sticky redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ ls -l sticky/                            //inside directory permissions total 8 -rwxr-xr-x 1 redhat adm 57 2013-10-24 15:35 stickybit.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 redhat adm 57 2013-10-24 15:36 stickybit.sh_bak //Adding sticky bit in permission by below syntax ..or use - chmod 1755 sticky redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ chmod +t sticky/                          redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ ls -l sticky/ total 8 -rwxr-xr-x 1 redhat adm 57 2013-10-24 15:35 stickybit.sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 redhat adm 57 2013-10-24 15:36 stickybit.sh_bak redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ ls -l total 4 drwxr-xr-t 2 redhat adm 4096 2013-10-24 15:36 sticky //In above line sticky bit added in permissions redhat@localhost:~/mywork$

Now we have set the sticky bit to directory. Now we will try to remove file or script inside the directory.

//Changing the user. Sandeep and redhat having same group. redhat@localhost:~/mywork/sticky$ su - Sandeep Password: Sandeep@localhost:~$ Sandeep@localhost:~$ pwd /home/Sandeep Sandeep@localhost:~$ cd ../redhat            //Change Directory to that sticky bit directory Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat$ ls mywork Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat$ ls -l total 4 drwxr-xr-x 3 redhat adm 4096 2013-10-24 15:39 mywork Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat$ cd mywork/ Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat/mywork$ ls -l total 4 drwxr-xr-t 2 redhat adm 4096 2013-10-24 15:36 sticky Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat/mywork$ Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat/mywork$ cd sticky/ Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat/mywork/sticky$ ls stickybit.sh  stickybit.sh_bak //Trying to remove sticky bit set directory content ..getting error permission denied Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat/mywork/sticky$ rm stickybit.sh rm: remove write-protected regular file `stickybit.sh'? y rm: cannot remove `stickybit.sh': Permission denied Sandeep@localhost:/home/redhat/mywork/sticky$

Permission denied while removing the file which resides into the directory whose sticky bit has been set already. This is the actual use of sticky bit on directory.

How to remove sticky bit of directory/file ?

We need to login by redhat or root user before removing sticky bit then only we can remove the Sticky bit.

redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ ls –l total 4 drwxr-xr-t 2 redhat adm 4096 2013-10-24 15:36 sticky //use below syntax or use – chmod 755 sticky redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ chmod -t sticky/ redhat@localhost:~/mywork$ ls -l total 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 redhat adm 4096 2013-10-24 15:36 sticky redhat@localhost:~/mywork$

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