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Date:      Mon, 27 Feb 2017 09:25:51 -0600 (CST)
From:      "Valeri Galtsev" <galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu>
To:        "Steve O'Hara-Smith" <steve@sohara.org>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: home directory overridden by root?
Message-ID:  <34847.128.135.52.6.1488209151.squirrel@cosmo.uchicago.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20170227145725.81ca3555a2fbfa472fa3e6a6@sohara.org>
References:  <B9C3096B-970E-468D-9316-9E650BAEC448@gmail.com> <20170227111307.5441830c@kalimero.tijl.coosemans.org> <F7C92D16-BEF9-4BA3-9F4E-CB5702D5069F@gmail.com> <20170227145725.81ca3555a2fbfa472fa3e6a6@sohara.org>

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On Mon, February 27, 2017 8:57 am, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Feb 2017 06:44:42 -0800
> Paul Beard <paulbeard@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> > On Feb 27, 2017, at 2:13 AM, Tijl Coosemans <tijl@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > If that's not correct check if some login script sets that variable
>> > and remove that.  Its value should be correct by default.
>>
>> I have no idea what could set that other than that some . script. But I
>> found nothing that set any environment variables.
>
> 	Those or login.conf or /etc/profile are about the only places it
> should be able to happen.
>
>> I created a .bashrc that explicitly sets it for now. I may create a new
>> user and see if that account gets its $HOME set properly.
>
> 	HOME normally gets set up correctly so something is awry on your
> system. Creating another user is well worth doing, it will tell you
> straight away whether the problem is in your own environment setup or in
> the system.

There is one more possibility: the problem was in the system the moment
"defunct" user was created. But since they it was fixed. The fact that it
is not there anymore may merely be due to the fact that intruders did
"sweep up" of their traces after they installed backdoor for themselves.
Alternatively, there just could have been typo on command line when you
were creating "defunct" account.

But I agree, creating one more account will give you additional
information in figuring out what's wrong. Unless all weirdness is
explained and has benign reasons, I would assume the machine compromised
and follow compromise recovery procedures (back up user data, re-format
the drive, install fresh system, patch, secure system, re-create users,
restore user data; and make sure all users know about potential event of
compromise, use different passwords, and change passwords everywhere else
where they logged in from compromised machine). All in all, finding out
reasons of weirdness is less hassle than blindly assuming compromise and
following recovery procedure.

Good luck!

Valeri

>
> --
> Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve@sohara.org>
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



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