SSH to a remote linux machine shows -bash: /root/.bashrc: Permission denied warning

The following are the steps I performed:

1. SSH to a CentOS 6.x machine that is in the local network with command

ssh root@192.168.0.1

2. Enter the root user password
3. I was able to successfully login to the machine, but I only get the bash terminal instead of the root user terminal.

Last login: Wed Apr 25 18:04:32 2018 from 192.168.0.27

-bash: /root/.bashrc: Permission denied

-bash-4.1#

I am trying to understand what is the problem here.

Additional info:

1. I am able to login to any other machine in the local network without having this issue.
2. Also, from the bash terminal, I am able to switch to the super user account with "su" command.

Few command executed on the remote machine which I'm trying to login and its output.

-bash-4.1# whoami
root
-bash-4.1# stat /root/.bashrc
File: `/root/.bashrc'
Size: 221 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: 802h/2050d Inode: 32510289 Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2018-04-26 10:09:04.206129757 +0530
Modify: 2018-04-25 18:04:59.354903860 +0530
Change: 2018-04-25 18:04:59.389903855 +0530
-bash-4.1# file /root/.bashrc
/root/.bashrc: ASCII text
-bash-4.1# lsattr /root/.bashrc
-------------e- /root/.bashrc

Bashrc content:

#/bin/bash -x
# User specific aliases and functions
alias rm='rm -i'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then . /etc/bashrc
fi
export PATH="/opt/postgres/postgresql:$PATH"

Can anyone please help me understand this?

1 Answer

-bash: /root/.bashrc: Permission denied

• Check the permissions of .bashrc file (which you did).

• Check the permissions of all files which you're including (such as /etc/bashrc).

• Check the permissions of all files which your global /etc/bashrc is including.

• Check the permissions of your /etc folder (see this post). For example:

   chmod 0755 /etc # run as root

• Consider adding -vvv when running ssh for more detailed output.

Tracing

To further debug the problem, you can enable tracing (xtrace) in your shell. Here are 3 methods:

1. Using shebang.

   Add the following line as the first one to your script:

    #!/bin/bash -x

2. Add set -x line at the very start of your startup script file.

3. Run bash with -x along with ssh command, e.g.

    \ssh -vvv root@192.168.0.1 -t bash -x

After that, try to reproduce the issue again, then you should find the problematic line.