My password is in a configuration file. How do I prevent read access to other users on the system?

Question

I am trying to use ssmtp as my command line mail application as proposed in this answer.

One of the steps is to put my mail account password in a file /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf. Since the file has read permission for all users, it undermines the secrecy of my password.

How to overcome this? I tried to remove the read permission for group and others but then ssmtp does not work anymore.

Answer 1

The answer is contained within the sample ssmtp.conf file - it reads as follows (taken from http://wiki.debian.org/sSMTP);

#### VERY IMPORTANT !!! If other people have access to this computer
# Your GMAIL Password is left unencrypted in this file
# so make sure you have a strong root password, and make sure
# you change the permissions of this file to be 640:
# chown root:mail /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf
# chmod 640 /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf"

Answer 2

Try invoking ssmtp as a regular user instead and specifying a custom configuration file location.

From the manpage of ssmtp(8):

-Cfile Use alternate configuration file.

Put your configuration file in a safe place in your home directory without read permission for others. Then run ssmtp like this:

user@host:~$ ssmtp -C/path/to/somesecuredir/ssmtp.conf [options]