<html><head><META content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<STYLE><!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.3300d587-a53c-4c85-aaa5-5e39bb4ee8f0, li.3300d587-a53c-4c85-aaa5-5e39bb4ee8f0, div.3300d587-a53c-4c85-aaa5-5e39bb4ee8f0, table.3300d587-a53c-4c85-aaa5-5e39bb4ee8f0Table         {margin:0cm;        margin-bottom:.0001pt;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></STYLE>
<META content="text/html; charset=us-ascii" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16640" name=GENERATOR></head><BODY><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><BR>Package: passwd<BR>Version: 1:4.0.18.1-7<BR>Severity: normal</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When creating or deleting users or groups, the shadow utilities
creates<BR>lock files like /etc/group.lock, /etc/shadow.lock, etc.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>These lock files contain the PID of the locker, so that if the
lock<BR>holder dies without unlocking the file, the lock requestor can break
the<BR>lock and take ownership.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>One scenario that we've encountered is that if the system is
restarted<BR>soon after creating new groups, the attempt to delete the locks is
lost.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The low PID then is used upon startup by a long-running daemon, and
then<BR>the lock is never freed.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>A potential workaround would be to check and see if the mod date
is<BR>older than the system uptime. Then one is limited to cases where
the<BR>PID has wrapped and collided which is much less likely.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>-- System Information:<BR>Debian Release: 4.0<BR> APT prefers
stable<BR> APT policy: (500, 'stable')<BR>Architecture: i386
(i686)<BR>Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash<BR>Kernel: Linux
2.6.18-5-686-bigmem<BR>Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US
(charmap=ISO-8859-1)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Versions of packages passwd depends on:<BR>ii
debianutils
2.17
Miscellaneous utilities specific t<BR>ii
libc6
2.3.6.ds1-13etch2 GNU C Library: Shared libraries<BR>ii
libpam-modules
0.79-4
Pluggable Authentication Modules f<BR>ii
libpam0g
0.79-4
Pluggable Authentication Modules l<BR>ii
libselinux1
1.32-3 SELinux
shared libraries<BR>ii
login
1:4.0.18.1-7 system login tools</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>passwd recommends no packages.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>-- debconf information:<BR> passwd/password-mismatch:<BR>
passwd/username: lsiamak<BR> passwd/password-empty:<BR>
passwd/make-user: true<BR> passwd/title:<BR>
passwd/user-uid:<BR> passwd/shadow: true<BR>
passwd/username-bad:<BR> passwd/user-fullname:<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT><FONT COLOR="silver" FACE="Verdana" SIZE="1"> <FONT FACE="System" SIZE="2">
<P>This email and any attachments thereto may contain private, confidential, and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, copying, or distribution of this email (or any attachments) by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copies of this email and any attachments thereto.</P></FONT></FONT></body></html>