topic Re: Problem creating a new user in Operating System - HP-UX

Problem creating a new user

yalin zhao — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:14:14 GMT

Hi there,

I have problems creating a new user through SAM.I tried to create three different users but got same result:

1.SAM can create a new user but does not list it in the user list after creating it.But I can see this new user in the/etc/passwd file.
2.When I login as this new user, I would get message "Your password has expired"
"Login aborted due to no new password"
"Wait for login Exit"
Then the window closes automatically.
3.As root, I can su - newuser. But when I type "whoami", I would get "Intruder Alert".

Anyone can figure out why this happened? Thanks for your response.

Yalin

Re: Problem creating a new user

Peter Kloetgen — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:18:04 GMT

Hi Yalin,

did you try to assign a password to the user as root?

passwd user_name

Try to login as new user after this. (I guess you are working on a trusted system)

Allways stay on the bright side of life!

Peter

Re: Problem creating a new user

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:19:56 GMT

Hi,

Look at the permissions on the /etc/passwd file. It should have read permissions for others.

-Sri

Re: Problem creating a new user

James R. Ferguson — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:20:08 GMT

Hi:

Check the permissions on '/etc/passwd'. They should be 644 or at least 444. The same is true for 'etc/group'. The permissions on the '/etc' directory should be 555. Make sure that both situations are correct.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Problem creating a new user

PIYUSH D. PATEL — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:20:09 GMT

Hi,

You can change the passwword thro
#passwd username

Check the permissions of the /etc/passwd and /etc/group file. These files should be readable by everybody. Or else it will give you an intruder alert message.

Also run pwck ...which checks your password file.

Piyush

Re: Problem creating a new user

S.K. Chan — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:24:29 GMT

The "intruder alert" will be produced if "whoami" command is having problem reading /etc/passwd file or the UID does not exist in /etc/passwd. Like others have suggested, look at it's permission.

Re: Problem creating a new user

MANOJ SRIVASTAVA — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:42:43 GMT

Hi Yalin

These are the 2 reasons :

1. Permission for the /etc/passwd file .

2. There are 2 users with differnt names and the same uid.

Manoj Srivastava

Re: Problem creating a new user

Martin Johnson — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:42:54 GMT

It is most likely a permission problem with /etc/passwd or /etc/group. However, I've seen this behavior when the /etc/passwd has become corrupt. Try openning the /etc/passwd file using vi and see if you get an error message like incomplete last line. For me, just doing a :wq! to rewrite the file cleared up the problem.

HTH
Marty

Re: Problem creating a new user

yalin zhao — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 15:43:14 GMT

I checked the right for /etc which is 555
/etc/passwd file is 444
/etc/group file is 444

This is a trusted system

I tried to assign a new password for this user.
I got the message "Password cannot be changed. Reason: Cannot access protected password entry."

Re: Problem creating a new user

Peter Kloetgen — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 16:00:21 GMT

Hi Yalin,

is a shadow file created for your new user in which the password is stored on trusted systems instead of /etc/passwd file? You will find it here:

/etc/tcb/auth/first_letter_of_username/username

seems like no shadow files are created on your system.

Allways stay on the bright side of life!

Peter

Re: Problem creating a new user

PIYUSH D. PATEL — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 16:02:23 GMT

Hi,

Try this :

Copy /tcb/files/auth/initial/user_name to /tcb/files/auth/initial/newuser and edit the file and correct the entries:
u_name=
u_pswduser=

Piyush

Re: Problem creating a new user

yalin zhao — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 16:29:37 GMT

Hi Peter,

I found the file on this trusted system at the location /tcb/files/auth. Should I remove the file with letter of that user_name and then recreate it?

Yalin

Re: Problem creating a new user

yalin zhao — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 18:58:05 GMT

I have tried all you suggested. But still the problem exists. Any other area you can think of? Thanks everybody.

Yalin

Re: Problem creating a new user

Daimian Woznick — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 19:17:28 GMT

Can you post the results of getprdef -m and getprpw ? Also post the TCB file itself. Have you ran authck yet?

Re: Problem creating a new user

MANOJ SRIVASTAVA — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 19:32:56 GMT

Hi Yalin

If you are still not able to change it then try doing it by sam , or change the system to untrusted system by tsconvert 0-r change it and then change it to trusted system.

Manoj Srivastava

Re: Problem creating a new user

yalin zhao — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 19:46:33 GMT

Following are what I got:

1.
# more /tcb/files/auth/t/tester
tester:u_name=tester:u_id#105: :u_pwd=ZybX.fDQZQ7JM: :u_auditid#22: :u_auditflag#1: :u_succhg#0:u_suclog#1026765245:u_lock@:chkent:
2.
# authck -p
#
3.
# getprdef -m
sh: getprdef: not found.
4.
# getprpw tester
sh: getprpw: not found.

What is the command to change the system back to trusted system.

Thanks

Re: Problem creating a new user

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 19:52:34 GMT

Hi Yalin,

As you tried all the options so far, try unconvert/converting the system to trusted.

1. Run /usr/lbin/tsconvert -r

This will restore the password file.

2. Run /usr/lbin/tsconvert

This will convert the system. But this will expire all the passwords of the users. So, following step is very important so that it will un-expire the passwords and your users will not see any difference.

SAM -> Auditing and Security -> System Security Policies -> Password Aging policies -> password aging

Select "disabled" and select OK

Re: Problem creating a new user

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 19:54:21 GMT

..[contd].. also restore if you have made any customizations before like no. of login tries etc.,.

This way it will not cause any inconvenience to the users.

-Sri

Re: Problem creating a new user

doug hosking — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 22:38:59 GMT

getprpw and getprdef are in /usr/lbin, which is probably not in your $PATH normally.
Is tester the real name of the user you
tried to create?

Re: Problem creating a new user

yalin zhao — Tue, 16 Jul 2002 12:41:01 GMT

Thanks everybody,

I created a user through command line. I will do a search on the SAM problem which I guess a bug exists.

Yalin