Proc Filesystem & Root

[torpb]

Hey all,

I'm slightly confused as to something regarding the /proc filesystem and root.

I was under the impression that root should should have full level access to everything on the machine. However, this doesn't seem to be the case with my system. Specifically, ./proc/6

Now, the voice in the back of my head is saying that for some odd reason I'm not supposed to be able to touch these things because they're a 'process running'? I don't know. Probably because I haven't been able to find out enough about what the hell is in /proc due to the fact my big-book-o-linux is on loan to a far needier soul. I'm just confused because I have not problem accessing anything else in my proc directory structure.

Should I be able to access these things as root, and if yes, any ideas as to why I can't?

[zxtech]

The proc 'process information pseudo-filesystem' file system it's a virtual file system maintained by the kernel itself.
proc is a pseudo-filesystem which is used as an interface to kernel data structures rather than reading and interpreting /dev/kmem. Most of it is read-only, but some files allow kernel variables to be changed, so maybe you were trying to view a file restricted by the kernel.

chris@zxtech.net
www.zxtech.net

[torpb]

Ok thanks, that helps much as to what exactly the proc filesystem is.

Are there any standard processes that the kernel does not allow access to?

The main reason I'm asking this is because there is a server that belongs to some friends of mine, that I've agreed to give netaccess too. Unfortunatly, they didn't do jack to secure the box, and now are coming to me asking for help because they think they got attacked. Could this 'locked process' really be trojan?

Thanks.