LFCA Question #39: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

A company's IT associate lists the contents of a directory and sees this line: -rwsr-x--x 2 bob sales 2047 Oct 10 09:44 sales-report What happens when Alice from the accounting team tries to execute this file?

Options

• AThe script executes using Bob's account.
• BThe script executes, but Alice cannot see the results.
• CThe script executes and Bob is notified.
• DThe script fails to execute; Alice is not on the sales team.

Explanation

The 's' in the owner's execute permission (-rws) indicates the Set User ID (SUID) bit is set, causing the script to execute with the permissions of the file owner (Bob) regardless of the user executing it.

Common mistakes.

• B. Alice's ability to see results depends on the script's output and her terminal access, not directly on the SUID bit itself, which concerns execution privileges.
• C. The SUID bit enables execution under the owner's identity but does not inherently trigger a notification to the owner.
• D. The script will execute because Alice has execute permission for 'others' (--x), and the SUID bit allows it to run with Bob's privileges, making the 'sales team' membership irrelevant for execution.

Concept tested. Linux file permissions (SUID bit)

Reference. https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/chmod.1.html

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