Manage Team vs User Manager - different path to Home directory for the very same user
I was wondering for quite some time, how I am able to add an additional team member and give them full access. While experimenting with this, I run into something I find a bit strange.
First, the reason behind this is
a) easier to withdraw access if needed (without the need to change the main cPanel account's password)
b) perhaps easier to see who accessed / modified files in the case of troubleshooting
I figured it out now (I think) but it's quite odd. I can add a new Team User via Manage Team and give them full access by adding the Role Administrator. I am not able to modify the home directory of the user, it'll be assigned automatically (and a folder will be created as well, e.g. /home/public_html/username.
Then I can go to the User Manager and change the home directory of the user e.g. instead of /home/public_html/username I give just the root directory "/" to this user
Now the user can log in and access the entire root folder of that cPanel user account. The account can be used with an FTP client and full access to the entire root folder is given.
When I go back to "Manage Team" and check the home directory it's still showing public_html/username. That also means whenever I do something at Manage Team and re-save, it'll overwrite the settings in the User Manager.
I can't believe that this is how it should all work. I learned about this a few weeks ago, so I hope I remember everything correctly when I tested this.
Can this be some sort of bug or is this "normal" in cPanel?
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Hey there! I've brought this up to the Manage Team developers and I'll let you know as soon as I have more information!
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Thanks a lot!
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Can I reach out to cPanel support if I am not the holder of the licence, as I am on a reseller hosting?
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The earlier post was a spam bot but no, you would reach out to wherever your license is purchased for support. I still haven't heard back from the team just yet but they are bringing this up in their meeting later today, so I should have some answers later for you.
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Are you trying to make a Manage Team user have full access to cPanel? I'm not completely sure what adjustments you're trying to make or what you're expecting to happen with the home directory, so if you had additional details about the configuration you're trying to achieve that would help!
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I tried to add a new user with full access to the cPanel account. This user is for the client (I am the web designer who offers hosting as well). The user for the client should have full access as it serves as some kind of emergency user. It's a separate user. I am not sharing my user, to be able to follow up with logs, etc. if necessary. If the client messes something up, I want to be able to tell it was clearly with their user. I can't do that when we share the very same user → a separate user for the client is mandatory.
About the home directory - it's in my eyes simply dangerously wrong. It must not be that this setting is not in sync. Fundamental issues come up because of that without the main admin being able to actually realize it.
There are two areas to define the home directory for a user. Those have different limitations, e.g. at Manage Team I am not able to fully change the home directory to my liking, i.e. I cannot define the cPanel's root directory as home directory for that user. That means, the user added via Manage Team cannot access anything from the cPanel account. It's possible to give the user Admin credentials, and at the same time this user does not have access to the files of the cPanel account.
In the User Manager on the other hand, the limitations are less strict. The Team User I just added prior to that can be editet in the User Manager. There it's possible to set any directory as home director. Therefore I simply gave the full permission by setting the cPanel's root folder as home directory.
I think I am just repeating what I said initially .. I know I didn't describe it the best way, it's a bit difficult to be honest. Can you follow and see what the problem is? If not I must take more time on the weekend to get to it again
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Thanks for the details - I think I understand now.
There isn't going to be a way to create another user with full cPanel access. When you create a Manage Team user with the "administrator" privilege, that's means it's the admin *for the team* and not for the entire cPanel account. We can see that under the Roles section here:
https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/preferences/manage-team/#roles
Does that help to clear things up?
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Thanks for explaining ... whatever it is, the issue stays the same, no? I try one more time, and did some new testing myself to be sure.
Screenshot below shows it very well. While doing more tests, I can clearly tell with Team Manager the limits are public_html. I cannot give the team-user any access to a higher level. With the User Manager I can give access to root. The applied setting is the one that was applied last, i.e. wherever I hit save the last time. This is a problem as the limitations are not identical. It's also impossible to tell which of the two screens is telling the truth. Without testing I would not be able to tell what the actual home directory of that user is. Without testing I would now know for sure what access level the user has.
The more I test, I see that is a real issue.
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The home directory of a member/user cannot be changed to my liking in location A, but it can be so on location B. Whenever you edit something in location A though, e.g. set a new password and hit "save" it'll automatically overwrites settings done in location B. The admin though is not actually knowing about this, it just happens. In the eyes of the admin, he is only setting a new password, not overwriting the home directory or anything else at the very same time.
Overall I see it this way: I tried to solve something or work around something that does not exist in cPanel (i.e. additional user with full access via FTP). Because of that, I learned about a cPanel problem.
One possible solution in simple words would be: apply the very same limitations and rules about what is allowed to define as `home` for a user, no matter whether it's done in the Manage Team or User Manager
Another solution would be: use the very same field and not 2 separate fields for the very same thing, i.e. home directory of a user
When I change the home directory in User Manager to something that is also allowed to be set in Manage Team, then the setting will be synced correctly e.g. I change the URL from `public_html/demo2` in User Manager to `public_html/demotest2` then I'll see `public_html/demotest2` as home directory in Manage Team. It's working the same the other way round.
However, when I change it to something that is possible and allowed in User Manager but not allowed in Manage Team it all becomes inconsistent and falls apart.
The current setting you are seeing in the screenshot, allows the user `andreas` to access files and folders of the entire cPanel account, so obviously at that current situation the setting of the "User Manager" is applied, the setting of "Manage Team" is ignored.
I hope I don't sound too harsh, I am just really already a very tired of cPanel, as I am fighting for months with my hosting provider over problems with cPanel, Cloudlinux, PHP Manager, WP Toolkit ...0 -
Thanks for the screenshots - that helps me a lot!
There isn't any relation between User Manager and Manage Team. User Manager is only for FTP, Web Disk, and Webmail, but those users can't access cPanel. The Manage Team tools have a lot more functionality, so there wouldn't be any relation between those two document roots that you're seeing as they are different users.
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When I add a user in Manage Teams, it automatically will be also added/shown in the User Manager. So Manage Teams is built on top of the User Manager then.
Either it's one and the same user, or it's two different users (one in Manage Team and one in User Manager) and they are somehow in sync. If it's the later, then this would mean, whenever I add a new user to Manage Team, automatically yet another user will be added in User Manager and those are somehow also connected.
In the end, to me as a user it doesn't matter how it's implemented behind the scenes, as long as it works realiably and I can trust what I see (e.g. permissions / home directory) is actually what is valid and applied. Right now that's not the case, and my tests proved it, when a user can access a different home directory via FTP than what is shown in cPanel. User Manager and Manage Teams both show FTP settings and the home directory. Those home directory IS in sync, but only when I add a directory that is "allowed" by both (User Manager and Manage Teams)
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Thanks for that - that's exactly what I needed to hear!
I spoke to the team again and they confirmed this is an issue as the document roots should be linked between the two areas, or at least you shouldn't be able to change them in one place and not the other. I've created case CPANEL-45821 for them to work on this and if I hear an update I'll be sure to post it here!
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Thanks a lot - yes something like that should be, otherwise it's a risk, especially as permissions can be crucial in the end
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