fstab label problem

Support for security such as Firewalls and securing linux
Post Reply
marcopb
Posts: 2
Joined: 2011/11/02 13:55:53

fstab label problem

Post by marcopb » 2011/11/02 14:06:13

In one of our machine I experienced quite the same problem as reported here http://centoshacker.com/admin/disks/surviving-fsckext3-unable-to-resolve-label-problem.html

As that blog said
"When we configured the system we setup the root partitoin, /dev/sda1, using label / using the disk setup program that starts up as part of the centos setup process. However, somehow the /etc/fstab now shows the root partition as LABEL=/1 instead of LABEL=/ and similarly we had our /var and /usr partition labels got messed up from being /usr and /var to /usr1 and /var1."
I was asking if someone of you have already experienced and analyzed this kind of problem from a security point of view: I mean... how could it be possible that fstab was modified in that way ?
Could it be modified because of a previous file system problem or a incomplete shutdown ?

Just let me know your opinions.
Thanks for your support.

gerald_clark
Posts: 10642
Joined: 2005/08/05 15:19:54
Location: Northern Illinois, USA

fstab label problem

Post by gerald_clark » 2011/11/02 14:12:39

Did you have other drives on that machine that were already using those labels?

marcopb
Posts: 2
Joined: 2011/11/02 13:55:53

Re: fstab label problem

Post by marcopb » 2011/11/02 14:44:41

None.

pschaff
Retired Moderator
Posts: 18276
Joined: 2006/12/13 20:15:34
Location: Tidewater, Virginia, North America
Contact:

Re: fstab label problem

Post by pschaff » 2011/11/04 14:23:50

Welcome to the CentOS fora. Please see the recommended reading for new users linked in my signature.

I can't understand how those changes would happen spontaneously. If an install is done when the labels already exist the installer appends "1" (or if that exists "2", etc.) to the labels for new partitions. AFAIK that should never happen during normal operations. If someone deliberately made the change without authorization then that qualifies as a security problem.

It's not clear what your current status is, or if additional help is needed. If so, please explain and [url=http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=28723&forum=54]provide more information about your system[/url].

Charles89
Posts: 3
Joined: 2011/12/22 11:55:03

Re: fstab label problem

Post by Charles89 » 2011/12/23 07:01:47

Every so often when I bootup my Ubuntu 10.10 computer a drive or two will not mount. The problem is a disk defined in fastab as sbb will now be recognized as sbc or sba... This is a physical computer and not a virtual machine...

For example... here's my fstab... The nfs partition is my WD external MyBook drive...

---------------------------------------------------

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
#
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=dff7a881-9812-437d-b2a3-44ec489e15e5 / ext4 defaults 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=023e6bcf-637a-485e-8652-b7de1096b060 none swap sw 0 0
# /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1 ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 0
# /dev/sdc1 /media/sdc1 ntfs nls=iso8859-1,ro,umask=000 0 0
# /dev/sdd1 /media/sdd1 ext4 defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1 ext4 defaults 0 0
/dev/sdc1 /media/sdc1 ext2 errors=remount-ro,user 0 0
/dev/sdd1 /media/sdd1 ntfs defaults 0 0

---------------------------------------------------------

the next day the drives may revert back to their previous identies or change to something else... this gets quite annoying as I have Samba shares defined on the Ubuntu computer and will have to point the shares to the changed unc... And of course the Windows 7 computers will complain and not map a drive letter to the Samba shares..

Perhaps I need to use UIDs in lieu of /dev/sb* ?

Any thoughts?

pschaff
Retired Moderator
Posts: 18276
Joined: 2006/12/13 20:15:34
Location: Tidewater, Virginia, North America
Contact:

Re: fstab label problem

Post by pschaff » 2011/12/23 16:58:39

[quote]
Charles89 wrote:
...
Any thoughts?[/quote]
Yes. Please do the recommend reading linked in my signature and do not hijack threads. All three of your posts to date have been thread hijackings.

Post Reply