SUMMARY Can't resolve user and group names

From: Scott Brewster <scott_at_sessb.its.dias.qut.edu.au>
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 13:34:04 +0000

Hi,

I have received three responses so far, all of them helpful. The respondents
were Bob Sloane, Denise Dumas, and Bruce Senn.

QUESTION:

After performing an upgrade of Digital Unix 4.0D to Compaq Tru64 Unix
V4.0F and then to Compaq Tru64 UNIX V5.0, a problem was occuring:

After logging in as a normal user, or by using the su command as
root, to become a different user, then typing "id", we get the message:

        uid=204
        Could not get "user" information

Also, the "ls" command cannot seem to convert numeric uids to strings.

$ ls -l /etc/passwd /etc/group
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 390 May 25 12:28 /etc/group
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 899 Nov 18 16:50 /etc/passwd

As you can see, the user and group names aren't resolving properly, but
the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files are readable. Non-root users can even
"cat" these files to list the contents.

SOLUTION:

The suggestion which worked was to check "/etc/sia/matrix.conf", which should
have 644 permissions. Our copy didn't. After resetting the permissions on this
file, everything looks fine again.


Other suggestions included:

* Checking the permissions on /etc to make sure non-root users could search
the directory.

* Confirm that the system really is in enhanced security mode:

        grep -i sec /etc/rc* and look for a line that says SECURITY="ENHANCED"

* Check the user account files used with enhanced security for correct
permissions:

# ls -l /var/tcb/files/auth.db
-rw-rw---- 1 auth auth 16384 Nov 17 19:49 /var/tcb/files/auth.db

# ls -l /tcb/files/auth.db
-rw-rw---- 1 auth auth 16384 Nov 17 20:44 /tcb/files/auth.db

A valid user will have an entry in /etc/passwd and in auth.db. Try authck -p
-v to sanity check /etc/passwd and /var/tcb/auth.db

Scott
Received on Fri Nov 19 1999 - 03:46:54 NZDT

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