IBM AIX 7.1 – Common Problem 120 – Diagnosis and Fix

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Commands fail with ‘Operation not permitted’ even as root on AIX 7.2.

Environment & Reproduction

Trusted Execution (TE) policy enabled and binary hashes mismatch TSD.

Root Cause Analysis

Binary updated but TSD database not refreshed after the change.

Quick Triage

Run trustchk -p ALL and trustchk -n to compare DB and on-disk hashes.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Identify the offending file with trustchk -t /usr/bin/somebin.

Solution – Primary Fix

Refresh the entry with trustchk -u file=/usr/bin/somebin to rehash.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Disable TE temporarily with trustchk -p TE=OFF for emergency recovery.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

trustchk -n shows no mismatches and the command runs as expected.

Rollback Plan

Re-enable TE with trustchk -p TE=ON after validation.

Prevention & Hardening

Integrate trustchk -u into patching scripts and audit weekly.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Pairs with AUDIT TE_VIOLATION events in audit streams.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.1.

View all aix-7.1 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

IBM Docs: Trusted Execution, trustchk on AIX 7.2.