A Linux administrator needs to harden a system and guarantee that the Postfix service will not run, even after a restart or system upgrade. Which of the following commands allows the administrator…

The correct answer is A. systemctl mask postfix.service. systemctl mask postfix.service is the correct command. Masking creates a symlink from the service unit file to /dev/null, which makes it completely impossible to start the service - manually, automatically at boot, or as a dependency of another service. This survives restarts…

System Management

Question

A Linux administrator needs to harden a system and guarantee that the Postfix service will not run, even after a restart or system upgrade. Which of the following commands allows the administrator to fulfill the requirement?

Options

Asystemctl mask postfix.service
Bsystemctl disable postfix.service
Csystemctl stop postfix.service
Dsystemctl -n restart postfix.service

How the community answered

(41 responses)

A
71% (29)
B
17% (7)
C
5% (2)
D
7% (3)

Explanation

systemctl mask postfix.service is the correct command. Masking creates a symlink from the service unit file to /dev/null, which makes it completely impossible to start the service - manually, automatically at boot, or as a dependency of another service. This survives restarts and package upgrades. By contrast, 'disable' (B) only prevents automatic startup at boot but allows manual starts. 'stop' (C) only halts the currently running instance and does not persist. 'systemctl -n restart' (D) is not a valid flag combination for this purpose.

Topics

#systemctl#service management#service masking#Linux hardening

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