During an internal audit, an information security officer discovered that some non-authorized users have executable privileges on all files in the system, but the script did not work. What must the…

Question

Options

• Asudo -u $userspec grep -lF executable
• Bsudo -u $userspec grep -type executable
• Csudo -u $userspec find / -type D -executable
• Dsudo -u $userspec find / -type f -executable

• A
  3% (1)
• B
  13% (5)
• C
  8% (3)
• D
  76% (29)

Explanation

Option D is correct because find / -type f -executable is the proper command to recursively search the entire filesystem (/) for regular files (-type f) that have the executable bit set (-executable), and sudo -u $userspec runs that search in the context of the specified user - revealing which files that user can execute.

Why the distractors fail:

• A uses grep -lF executable, but grep searches file contents, not file permissions or metadata - it cannot detect executable bits at all.
• B also misuses grep with a -type flag that grep doesn't even support; -type is a find option, not a grep option.
• C uses -type D (capital D), which is invalid in find; the correct flag for directories is lowercase -type d - and the goal here is to find files, not directories anyway.

Memory tip: Think "Find Files, not Grep" - grep digs inside file content, while find interrogates file properties like type and permissions. When hunting for executable files on the filesystem, always reach for find -type f -executable.

No community discussion yet for this question.