# Strace and gdb cannot attach to running processes

**URL:** <https://forums.suse.com/t/strace-and-gdb-cannot-attach-to-running-processes/36144>\
**Category:** SUSE Linux Enterprise Server\
**Created:** [November 10, 2021, 10:35am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/strace-and-gdb-cannot-attach-to-running-processes/36144 "2021-11-10T10:35:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Oscar.AlvarezParedes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dc4da7/32.png) [@Oscar.AlvarezParedes](https://forums.suse.com/u/Oscar.AlvarezParedes)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 10:35am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/strace-and-gdb-cannot-attach-to-running-processes/36144/1 "2021-11-10T10:35:06Z")

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Hi,

We have SLES 12SP3 LTSS, and as part of the maintenance of some applications built for this platform we need to use strace -p or gdb to attach to running processes owned by us. When we used those applications to attach to a running process, the system sends a PTRACE error and the application is stopped. Under Ubuntu there is a kernel parameter to prevent this issue from happening, but in SLES I couldn’t find such parameter. If run as root that problem disappears, but we regard it’s a big risk to do software development as root. Is there a way to prevent this kernel restriction from happening?

Kind regards,

Oscar