Default permission of user home can be controlled in following places.
- The skeleton directory option (
-k, --skel SKEL_DIR
) of useradd
.
SKEL
value in /etc/adduser.conf
that define default skeleton directory.
DIR_MODE
value in /etc/adduser.conf
that define default permissions.
Home directory of new users are created using /etc/skel
as a template (default behavior).
Default permission of /etc/skel
is 0755 (drwxr-xr-x)
.
Using a custom skeleton directory with correct permissions will allow new home directories to have desired permissions.
Defaults for adduser
are defined in /etc/adduser.conf
.
Default value of DIR_MODE
in /etc/adduser.conf
is 0755
.
Changing DIR_MODE
to correct permissions (DIR_MODE=0750
or similar) will allow new home directories to have desired permissions.
According to Ubuntu documentation, this seems to be the best option.
Already existing user home directories will need to be manually changed.
sudo chmod 0750 /home/username
So its a good idea to change /etc/adduser.conf
right after the installation to avoid new users getting 0755 (drwxr-xr-x)
type permissions.
Still the very first user created during installation will have 0755
set to its home directory, which should be manually changed.
UMASK
in /etc/login.defs
is a general setting for files/directories/etc created by users (not only in their home directories). and could get changed depending on USERGROUPS_ENAB
in /etc/login.defs
.
The official explanation: User Management - User Profile Security
Check other sections of User Management as well.
Related: https://askubuntu.com/questions/46501/why-can-other-users-see-the-files-in-my-home-folder
skel
andhome-dirs