Introduction to Unix File Permission

A security system designed in UNIX. Taking into consideration the

multi-user operating system nature of UNIX that allows multiple

users access the system simultaneously. Rendering the system

vulnerable to external threats that may cause damage to the system

and lead to misleading of information, corrupting the data is termed as

UNIX File Permissions. A concept that is very important and

tremendously crucial so as to grant accesses to various users

appropriately, so that there’s no misuse on the part of the user, thus

providing security to users of the system whose access to the system

is regulated.

Unix File Permissions

Every File in Unix can have 3 types of owners. They can be as below:

 User: A user is the default person who creates the file. This is

the real owner of the file and has full rights and permissions to

the file that is created.

 Group: A group can have many users included in it. The users

that are included in a group will have similar permissions for all
 the files to which the group has access to. For example, if a

project needs a particular group of people to have access then

you can add all these users to a group and then give them similar

permissions. This can only read or read and write permissions. It

saves the time of giving access to each user separately when

similar accesses are to be given.

 Other: These are the users who need access to a file though

they are neither the owner nor a member of any group. This can

be anybody else who needs access to some particular work. The

permissions thus play an important role in this case.

Permissions
A file can have three kinds of permissions to it. Based on the type of

owner all the below three permissions can be given to all three types

of owners.

 Read: By assigning this kind of permission you are giving a

user the authority of opening and reading the contents of the file.

You can see all its contents but do not have the permission or

rights for making any changes to it.

  Write: The write permission enables the user to modify the

contents of the file. By applying this the user is given the

authority to read, modify, add, remove and rename the files

which are stored in a directory. Suppose a user has the write

access to file. The user can modify the file. They can also

remove or rename any files if they wish to.

 Execute: An executable file on windows can be easily run with

its .exe file. But when it comes to Unix, a program cannot run

until it has the execute permission. If your user id does not give

the appropriate execute permission, then you will not be able to

execute it. You can still modify or read the contents of the file.

Changing Permissions
To change the permissions of a file or directory, you can make use of

the Chmod command. There are two ways in which the permissions

can be changed. It is the symbolic mode and absolute mode.

Chmod in Symbolic mode with Examples

If you are a beginner, then this is the easiest way for you to change

the permissions for the file. With this method, you can add, delete or

specify the permission which you can set as per the requirement.
  ‘+’: This adds the specified permissions to the file or directory

which is intended.

 ‘-‘: Thie removes the specified permissions to the file or

directory which is intended.

 ‘=’: This sets the specified permissions.

 ‘r”: This indicates read

 ‘w’: This indicates write

 ‘x’: This indicates execute

 ‘-‘: No permission

Let us take an example:

 -rw-rw-r—as830b home

Here the first ‘-’ indicates that we are selecting a file.

If a d is added at the beginning like- drwxr, then it indicates that a

directory is being given the said permissions.

 -rw-rw-r—as830b home
The first part -rw suggests that the owner as830b can read the file,

edit it but the user does not have to execute access since the access is

set to ‘-‘.

The second part rw-means that the user as830b can only read or write

or make changes to the file.

The third part r- – means that the user can only read the file.

Chmod in Absolute Mode with Examples

When you are using this mode you have to make use of the three-digit

octal number. This means this corresponds to below:

 0: Permission denied —

 1: Execute –x

 2: Write -w-

 3: Execute and Write -wx

 4: Read r – –

 5: Read and execute r-x

 6: Read and write rw-

 7: Read and write and execute rwx

When a command is given as chmod 764 file.txt, this means that the

owner can read, write and execute. The user group can read and write

while others can only read the file. Similarly, if the command changes

to chmod 777 file.txt, this means that the user can read write and

execute. The people in the user group can also do the same. In

addition to this then the world will also be able to make changes, edit

and execute.

The owners can also be denoted symbolically as:

 U: user/owner

 G: group

 O: other

 A: all

This can be used as chmod o=rwx  file.txt, which means others are

being set to read write and execute. Adding execute to the user group

to execute can be set by using: chmod g+x file.txt

Conclusion
Unix is a multiuser system and hence needs setting up permissions

and ownership to files from the perspective of security. It has three

defined user groups and three types of permissions that can be set as

per the need. This can be for any group or user which needs the

specified permissions. The command ‘chmod’ enables in setting and

changing permissions to the users and groups. This helps in ensuring

that only authorized people are seeing the contents. Thus Unix

ensures that security is maintained and the data is also accessible to

multiple users at the same time.