Host of issues stemming from too many symlink levels errors
On an AWS EC2 instance, I was upgrading imagemagick. Current installation was 6.8.x which is vulnerable, and I was moving it to 6.9.10-12 which if I read properly, I think it's patched.
Somewhere during the process, I stumbled upon the following error when executing a sudo command:
-bash sudo: Too many levels of symbolic links [paraphrased]
This was when trying to add a new link onto /usr/bin/.
So I had a look inside to see if there was something funky in there... and I found a bin folder inside /usr/bin/ that was linked to /usr/bin//
During that time, I temporarily lost internet access, which was regained rather quickly, so I re-start my ssh connection to the ec2 instance and lo and behold....
$ sudo
The program 'sudo' can be found in the following packages:
* sudo
* sudo-ldap
Try: sudo apt install <selected package>
So... now my user lost access to sudo as well... any sort of command to fix any links inside /usr/bin will need sudo access... installing sudo needs sudo access... going su - to switch to root, seems to also need sudo access because it otherwise asks me for password for root, and aws does not give you that when launching an instance...
Would the steps detailed on this answer be my only way to fix this now? (If this can be fixed at all!?)
ubuntu symlink amazon-ec2 aws
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
add a comment |
On an AWS EC2 instance, I was upgrading imagemagick. Current installation was 6.8.x which is vulnerable, and I was moving it to 6.9.10-12 which if I read properly, I think it's patched.
Somewhere during the process, I stumbled upon the following error when executing a sudo command:
-bash sudo: Too many levels of symbolic links [paraphrased]
This was when trying to add a new link onto /usr/bin/.
So I had a look inside to see if there was something funky in there... and I found a bin folder inside /usr/bin/ that was linked to /usr/bin//
During that time, I temporarily lost internet access, which was regained rather quickly, so I re-start my ssh connection to the ec2 instance and lo and behold....
$ sudo
The program 'sudo' can be found in the following packages:
* sudo
* sudo-ldap
Try: sudo apt install <selected package>
So... now my user lost access to sudo as well... any sort of command to fix any links inside /usr/bin will need sudo access... installing sudo needs sudo access... going su - to switch to root, seems to also need sudo access because it otherwise asks me for password for root, and aws does not give you that when launching an instance...
Would the steps detailed on this answer be my only way to fix this now? (If this can be fixed at all!?)
ubuntu symlink amazon-ec2 aws
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
add a comment |
On an AWS EC2 instance, I was upgrading imagemagick. Current installation was 6.8.x which is vulnerable, and I was moving it to 6.9.10-12 which if I read properly, I think it's patched.
Somewhere during the process, I stumbled upon the following error when executing a sudo command:
-bash sudo: Too many levels of symbolic links [paraphrased]
This was when trying to add a new link onto /usr/bin/.
So I had a look inside to see if there was something funky in there... and I found a bin folder inside /usr/bin/ that was linked to /usr/bin//
During that time, I temporarily lost internet access, which was regained rather quickly, so I re-start my ssh connection to the ec2 instance and lo and behold....
$ sudo
The program 'sudo' can be found in the following packages:
* sudo
* sudo-ldap
Try: sudo apt install <selected package>
So... now my user lost access to sudo as well... any sort of command to fix any links inside /usr/bin will need sudo access... installing sudo needs sudo access... going su - to switch to root, seems to also need sudo access because it otherwise asks me for password for root, and aws does not give you that when launching an instance...
Would the steps detailed on this answer be my only way to fix this now? (If this can be fixed at all!?)
ubuntu symlink amazon-ec2 aws
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
On an AWS EC2 instance, I was upgrading imagemagick. Current installation was 6.8.x which is vulnerable, and I was moving it to 6.9.10-12 which if I read properly, I think it's patched.
Somewhere during the process, I stumbled upon the following error when executing a sudo command:
-bash sudo: Too many levels of symbolic links [paraphrased]
This was when trying to add a new link onto /usr/bin/.
So I had a look inside to see if there was something funky in there... and I found a bin folder inside /usr/bin/ that was linked to /usr/bin//
During that time, I temporarily lost internet access, which was regained rather quickly, so I re-start my ssh connection to the ec2 instance and lo and behold....
$ sudo
The program 'sudo' can be found in the following packages:
* sudo
* sudo-ldap
Try: sudo apt install <selected package>
So... now my user lost access to sudo as well... any sort of command to fix any links inside /usr/bin will need sudo access... installing sudo needs sudo access... going su - to switch to root, seems to also need sudo access because it otherwise asks me for password for root, and aws does not give you that when launching an instance...
Would the steps detailed on this answer be my only way to fix this now? (If this can be fixed at all!?)
ubuntu symlink amazon-ec2 aws
ubuntu symlink amazon-ec2 aws
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
edited Jan 13 at 21:05
Rui F Ribeiro
39.5k1479133
39.5k1479133
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
asked Oct 15 '18 at 19:40
EffectiXEffectiX
1031
1031
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
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oldest
votes
Yes, you screwed up by creating a cyclic link. You did this in /usr/bin, which is why you can't execute commands any longer.
Yes, the easiest way is to access the screwed-up file system from the outside, as described in the answer you linked, and fix the cyclic link.
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
Updating: Got it fixed. To think that all this coming from following install instructions on imagemagick... Thanks for confirming the procedure dirkt.
– EffectiX
Jan 14 at 17:06
add a comment |
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1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Yes, you screwed up by creating a cyclic link. You did this in /usr/bin, which is why you can't execute commands any longer.
Yes, the easiest way is to access the screwed-up file system from the outside, as described in the answer you linked, and fix the cyclic link.
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
Updating: Got it fixed. To think that all this coming from following install instructions on imagemagick... Thanks for confirming the procedure dirkt.
– EffectiX
Jan 14 at 17:06
add a comment |
Yes, you screwed up by creating a cyclic link. You did this in /usr/bin, which is why you can't execute commands any longer.
Yes, the easiest way is to access the screwed-up file system from the outside, as described in the answer you linked, and fix the cyclic link.
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
Updating: Got it fixed. To think that all this coming from following install instructions on imagemagick... Thanks for confirming the procedure dirkt.
– EffectiX
Jan 14 at 17:06
add a comment |
Yes, you screwed up by creating a cyclic link. You did this in /usr/bin, which is why you can't execute commands any longer.
Yes, the easiest way is to access the screwed-up file system from the outside, as described in the answer you linked, and fix the cyclic link.
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
Yes, you screwed up by creating a cyclic link. You did this in /usr/bin, which is why you can't execute commands any longer.
Yes, the easiest way is to access the screwed-up file system from the outside, as described in the answer you linked, and fix the cyclic link.
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
answered Oct 16 '18 at 6:52
dirktdirkt
16.8k21336
16.8k21336
Updating: Got it fixed. To think that all this coming from following install instructions on imagemagick... Thanks for confirming the procedure dirkt.
– EffectiX
Jan 14 at 17:06
add a comment |
Updating: Got it fixed. To think that all this coming from following install instructions on imagemagick... Thanks for confirming the procedure dirkt.
– EffectiX
Jan 14 at 17:06
Updating: Got it fixed. To think that all this coming from following install instructions on imagemagick... Thanks for confirming the procedure dirkt.
– EffectiX
Jan 14 at 17:06
Updating: Got it fixed. To think that all this coming from following install instructions on imagemagick... Thanks for confirming the procedure dirkt.
– EffectiX
Jan 14 at 17:06
add a comment |
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