Dan Bongert wrote: > Hello all: > > I have a couple CentOS 4 servers (all up-to-date) that are having > strange command failures. I first noticed this with a perl script that > uses lots of system calls. > > Basically, sometimes a command just won't run: > > thoth(52) /tmp> ls > > thoth(53) /tmp> ls > > thoth(54) /tmp> ls > > thoth(55) /tmp> ls > learner lost+found/ > > thoth(56) /tmp> ls > learner lost+found/ > > thoth(57) /tmp> ls > learner lost+found/ > > thoth(58) /tmp> ls > learner lost+found/ > > thoth(59) /tmp> ls > learner lost+found/ > > thoth(60) /tmp> ls > learner lost+found/ > > thoth(61) /tmp> ls > learner lost+found/ > > thoth(62) /tmp> ls > > thoth(63) /tmp> ls > > thoth(64) /tmp> ls > > thoth(65) /tmp> ls > > thoth(66) /tmp> uname -a > Linux thoth.ssc.wisc.edu 2.6.9-67.0.7.ELsmp #1 SMP Sat Mar 15 06:54:55 > EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux > > Nothing in either dmesg or /var/log/messages seems to indicate any > problems. It also doesn't seem to matter what the command is -- ls is > the quickest test, but sshd will sometimes to fail to spawn children, > etc. There aren't a large amount of processes on the machine either -- > only 122 at the moment. > > Has anyone seen this behavior before? Have I been hit with some sort > of cunning rootkit? This machine shouldn't be publicly accessible; > it's behind our firewall. where is /tmp mounted? is this an external disk (usb, ...)? is it an nfs mount?