Why can I (as standard user) delete a file with permissions set to 000?

TylerDevers

Hello Everybody,

I am currently on Lab 32.2, experimenting with umask values. I have set umask = 0777 and then created a file. This file has zero permissions. I was expecting to need root privileges to remove it but I did not. I am curious as to why. I have attached a screen shot showing the commands from the shell.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Tyler

Distro = Centos 7 minimal install, inside KVM.
user's groups: wheel

KonstantinA

You have forgot to paste an important command in your example, which is "ls -ld ."
You are in your home directory, for which i bet you will have as user "tyler" rwx. What does the "w" mean on a directory? The ability to create and delete files in it.
This is why you can delete the file. Of course as you can see you get prompted with a warning, "write-protected regular file". This comes from the fact the file itself has no permissions set.

coop

correct. "write permission" is not the same as "delete" permission. you could not have done something like echo "aline" >> bfile, but you can remove it. Believe me, lots of us have made bad mistakes with this confusion

TylerDevers

@KonstantinA @coop
Thank you! This was simultaneously a "face palm" moment and a "mind blown" moment for me.