RHEL 7 Cron Job Runs but Script Fails Under SELinux

📖 ~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

Scheduled maintenance appears successful in cron logs but target actions fail silently, causing operational drift.

Environment & Reproduction

RHEL 7 with enforcing SELinux and custom script path under /opt reproduces permission-denied behavior for cron.

Root Cause Analysis

Script and output directories carry incompatible SELinux types, preventing crond domain from required read or execute.

Quick Triage

Check service crond status, run sealert hints, review journalctl and /var/log/audit logs, verify firewalld paths.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Use ausearch and audit2why to map denied operations, then inspect file labels with ls -Z.

Solution – Primary Fix

Apply proper SELinux context rules and permissions, restart crond service, and validate scheduled execution.

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Relocate scripts to standard labeled directories, define confined custom policy module, or run via systemctl timer.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Cron task completes expected outputs and no new AVC denials appear in journalctl and audit logs.

Rollback Plan

Remove newly applied policy module and revert file contexts to prior state if side effects are observed.

Prevention & Hardening

Include SELinux checks in deployment, test cron under enforcing mode, and maintain scripted context assignments.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Comparable failures include systemd timer permission denials, service account shell restrictions, and firewalld outbound blocks.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for rhel-7.

View all rhel-7 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Reference SELinux cron domain docs, RHEL scheduling guidance, and journalctl auditing workflows.