Unexpected security changes

[s37n]

after setting up my server, I installed csf, logwatch, and chkrootkit.

after configuring all three, I created my main account with root privileges, and disabled root logins for SSH.

when I tried to SU with my new account, I got the following error:
su: cannot set user id: Resource temporarily unavailable

after searching google, I found that making the following changes fixed the issue:
Edit limit.conf below or change if needed.
#vi /etc/security/limit.conf
#### add/change on these line below:
* soft nproc 2047
* hard nproc 16384
* soft nofile 2048
* hard nofile 65536

my question...
which one of the programs I installed could have made these changes? I'd like to know, so I don't make the same mistake again, as I've never had this problem in the past, so it has to be something I did differently this time around.

thanks in advance for any assistance you may provide,
7

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello

Are you sure it was one of those third-party applications that modified /etc/security/limit.conf and it was not just the default settings for those values? You could test this by installing each application one at a time and seeing what changes are made.

Thank you.

 

[s37n]

Hello

Are you sure it was one of those third-party applications that modified /etc/security/limit.conf and it was not just the default settings for those values? You could test this by installing each application one at a time and seeing what changes are made.

Thank you.

i guess that's possible, just haven't ever ran across it before, and this is the 3rd server I've setup with this host. It is the first time I've installed centos 6 (64-bit), so maybe there's some differences within the OS.

it's not really a big deal, just like to try and educate myself a little when "strange" things come up