When using PAP with PPP, the /etc/ppp/pap-secrets file must be

The correct answer is C. readable only by root. /etc/ppp/pap-secrets contains plaintext username/password pairs, so it must be readable only by root (mode 600 or 640 with root ownership) to prevent any other user or process from harvesting credentials. Option A (world-readable) would expose all PPP secrets to every user on…

Networking Fundamentals

Question

When using PAP with PPP, the /etc/ppp/pap-secrets file must be

Options

Aworld-readable
Breadable only by the ppp user
Creadable only by root
Dreadable and executable by user root and group ppp

How the community answered

(44 responses)

A
2% (1)
B
5% (2)
C
84% (37)
D
9% (4)

Explanation

/etc/ppp/pap-secrets contains plaintext username/password pairs, so it must be readable only by root (mode 600 or 640 with root ownership) to prevent any other user or process from harvesting credentials. Option A (world-readable) would expose all PPP secrets to every user on the system - a critical security failure. Option B is wrong because the ppp daemon runs as root on Linux, not as a dedicated ppp user, so restricting to a ppp user would break authentication. Option D is wrong because adding execute permissions to a secrets file is nonsensical (it's a flat text file, not a script) and granting group ppp read access unnecessarily widens exposure.

Memory tip: Think "secrets = root-only." Any file with the word "secrets" in /etc/ppp/ (pap-secrets, chap-secrets) follows the same rule - 600 root:root - just like SSH private keys.

Topics

#PAP authentication#PPP configuration#File permissions#Credential security

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