Root Directory and the folders it contains

Root Directory is the GOD of all folders

Created: 2022-07-23
Tags: #fleeting

All folders in here comes from / or root directory
/etc -> passwd, shadow, sudoers.d
/var -> /var/log
/root
/tmp

bin - directory

  • binaries and executable files
  • the files here can be executed in terminal

etc - directory

home - directory

Each user only has write access to their own home folder

boot - directory

  • contain files needed to boot system

opt - directory

This is where 3rd-party software lives

/usr

user related programs

/var

  • Frequently accessed/written by services/applications

Special Files worth mentioning in /var

  • /var/log is where log files are stored
    It automatically manage logs in a process that is known as "rotating".

Examples of useful logs in /var/log

  • An Apache2 web server
  • Logs for the fail2ban service, which is used to monitor attempted brute forces, for example
  • The UFW service which is used as a firewall

/root

Home directory of a root user. The user would have their data in a directory such as /home/root by default.

/tmp

Like temp in windows
What's useful for us in pentesting is that any user can write to this folder by default. Meaning once we have access to a machine, it serves as a good place to store things like our enumeration scripts.

dev - directory

References

Interactive Graph
Table Of Contents
Root Directory and the folders it contains
bin - directory
etc - directory
home - directory
boot - directory
opt - directory
/usr
/var
Special Files worth mentioning in /var
Examples of useful logs in /var/log
/root
/tmp
dev - directory
References