topic Re: username truncated to 8 characters in Operating System - HP-UX

username truncated to 8 characters

Ross W — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:26:34 GMT

Hi,

I have several HPUX 11.11 servers, all of them configured with integration to windows active directory for authentication of users.

One of the servers truncates usernames to 8 characters. This prevents tools like sudo from working.

I have tried the server in TCB mode and it makes no difference.

If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.

Regards
Ross

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Steven E. Protter — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:39:11 GMT

Shalom Ross,

Only one of the servers truncates user name like tat.

The all should.

HP-UX supports integration into windows ADS domains, but in principle ignores user name characters beyond number 8.

Whatever integration is being used, ADS, DOMAIN is probably the root cause of this problem.

There are probably clues in the /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log file.

SEP

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Yogeeraj_1 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:52:56 GMT

hi Ross,

As mentioned by SEP above, if the HP-UX servers are similar, you should all behave similarly.

there may be something specific on the server where you have encountered the problem.

You may also get some clues in the SUDO log files. (the default logfile is found at /var/run/sudo/sudo.log)

revert

kind regards
yogeeraj

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Ross W — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:02:14 GMT

It's weird because this server is behaving differently to the rest.

As you can see from this output, the broken server (server1) chops the end of the username

Beveridg@server1(beveridger)> id
uid=10183(Beveridg) gid=10000(AdmsUnix)

BeveridgeR@server2(beveridger)> id
uid=10183(BeveridgeR) gid=10000(AdmsUnix)

The only error output is this in the syslog:-

Mar 18 15:55:19 server1 sudo: Beveridg : pam_authenticate: No account present for user ; TTY=pts/5 ; PWD=/home/beveridger ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/su -

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Ian Kidd_1 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:36:28 GMT

Are you sure the servers are EXACTLY the same? On the systems that are working, is there possibly a file named "I_ACCEPT_RESPONSIBILITY_FOR_BYPASSING_SECURITY_CHECKS". in /etc/default?

if so, search the knowledge base for KBRC00003778. The following link also provides some info regarding usernames longer than 8 characters:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=110703

hope this applies to your situation

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Ross W — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:00:32 GMT

Thanks Ian - I was missing patch
PHCO_33215 1.0 libpam_unix cumulative patch
which was installed on the other servers

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Ross W — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:25:38 GMT

Unfortunately the patches did not fix the problem.

None of the servers have the "I_ACCEPT_RESPONSIBILITY_FOR_BYPASSING_SECURITY_CHECKS" file which is mentioned on other forums, so that can't be the cause of the problem.

Ross

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Ross W — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:17:09 GMT

Looks like there are no GOLD release patches installed on this server.

Fingers crossed that the problem will be gone after the gold release patches are installed.

Re: username truncated to 8 characters

Ross W — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:18:37 GMT

Just install the latest gold release patches and the problem will disappear.