[opensuse] PAM prevents root access to crontab ?

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Ben DJ

16 Dec 2009 16 Dec '09

21:09

Hi, I'm running 11.2. I just noticed on every box I have, root /root > crontab Permission denied You (root) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration. And in syslog, Dec 16 13:03:40 desk2 crontab: PAM _pam_load_conf_file: unable to open /etc/pam.d/password-auth Dec 16 13:03:40 desk2 crontab: PAM _pam_load_conf_file: unable to open /etc/pam.d/password-auth I've certainly never set any PAM config, or anything. On 11.1 I had no such problems. checking cron's man page, it references the pam man page. Checking the pam & PAM man pages, there's no mention of cron :-/ What's PAM got to do with cron, and how do I get permission to access it? Thanks, BenDJ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

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John Andersen

17 Dec 17 Dec

00:38

On 12/16/2009 1:09 PM, Ben DJ wrote:

...

Hi,

I'm running 11.2. I just noticed on every box I have,

root /root > crontab Permission denied You (root) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

And in syslog,

Dec 16 13:03:40 desk2 crontab: PAM _pam_load_conf_file: unable to open /etc/pam.d/password-auth Dec 16 13:03:40 desk2 crontab: PAM _pam_load_conf_file: unable to open /etc/pam.d/password-auth

I've certainly never set any PAM config, or anything. On 11.1 I had no such problems.

checking cron's man page, it references the pam man page. Checking the pam & PAM man pages, there's no mention of cron :-/

What's PAM got to do with cron, and how do I get permission to access it?

Pam has to do with who can long on and what services they can run. Do you have root login blocked in Yast? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ben DJ

00:50

Hi, On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 4:38 PM, John Andersen wrote:

...

...
What's PAM got to do with cron, and how do I get permission to access it?

Pam has to do with who can long on and what services they can run.

Do you have root login blocked in Yast?

No, I can certainly log in as root ... @ boot, @ any shell, via ssh, etc. Sudo works as well for my 'normal' user. BenDJ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Jan Ritzerfeld

16:28

Am Mittwoch, 16. Dezember 2009 schrieb Ben DJ:

...

I'm running 11.2. I just noticed on every box I have,

Did you do a fresh install on these boxes or an upgrade?

...

root /root > crontab Permission denied You (root) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

And in syslog,

Dec 16 13:03:40 desk2 crontab: PAM _pam_load_conf_file: unable to open /etc/pam.d/password-auth Dec 16 13:03:40 desk2 crontab: PAM _pam_load_conf_file: unable to open /etc/pam.d/password-auth

I've certainly never set any PAM config, or anything.

The file /etc/pam.d/password-auth does not exist on both 11.1 and 11.2. Furthermore, "grep -r password-auth /etc/pam.d/" does not give any hit for me. Do you have any line like "...include...password-auth" in your /etc/pam.d/crond?

...

On 11.1 I had no such problems.

Using a fresh 11.2 installation, crontab works. Besides "crontab" alone is not a valid command, there must be some option.

...

checking cron's man page, it references the pam man page. Checking the pam & PAM man pages, there's no mention of cron :-/

Well, I do not think that it would be that practical to mention every application that uses pam in the pam man page.

...

What's PAM got to do with cron, and how do I get permission to access it?

It is used for access control. Gruß Jan -- It's easier said than done. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ben DJ

16:46

Hi, On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 8:28 AM, Jan Ritzerfeld wrote:

...

The file /etc/pam.d/password-auth does not exist on both 11.1 and 11.2. Furthermore, "grep -r password-auth /etc/pam.d/" does not give any hit for me. Do you have any line like "...include...password-auth" in your /etc/pam.d/crond?

as installed -- i.e., I've never touched it, cat /etc/pam.d/crond # # The PAM configuration file for the cron daemon # # # No PAM authentication called, auth modules not needed account required pam_access.so account include password-auth session required pam_loginuid.so session include password-auth

...

Using a fresh 11.2 installation, crontab works. Besides "crontab" alone is not a valid command, there must be some option.

SYNOPSIS crontab [-u user] file crontab [-u user] [-l | -r | -e] [-i] [-s] the 2nd line looks like all options are optional -- i.e., 'crontab' alone is fine. but, in any case, 'crontab -e' returns exactly the same result as above ... Permission denied You (root) are not allowed to access to (crontab) because of pam configuration.

...

Well, I do not think that it would be that practical to mention every application that uses pam in the pam man page.

I didn't suggest that.

...

...
What's PAM got to do with cron, and how do I get permission to access it?

It is used for access control.

BenDJ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Carlos E. R.

17:04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Thursday, 2009-12-17 at 08:46 -0800, Ben DJ wrote:

...

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 8:28 AM, Jan Ritzerfeld <> wrote:

...
The file /etc/pam.d/password-auth does not exist on both 11.1 and 11.2. Furthermore, "grep -r password-auth /etc/pam.d/" does not give any hit for me. Do you have any line like "...include...password-auth" in your /etc/pam.d/crond?

as installed -- i.e., I've never touched it,

cat /etc/pam.d/crond # # The PAM configuration file for the cron daemon # # # No PAM authentication called, auth modules not needed account required pam_access.so account include password-auth session required pam_loginuid.so session include password-auth

It is quite different from mine: bombadillo:~ # cat /etc/pam.d/crond # # The PAM configuration file for the cron daemon # # auth sufficient pam_rootok.so auth include common-auth account include common-account password include common-password session required pam_loginuid.so session include common-session And that is the default configuration: bombadillo:~ # l /etc/pam.d/crond - -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 287 2009-10-24 06:14 /etc/pam.d/crond Please give the output of this command: grep PERMISSION_SECURITY /etc/sysconfig/security You might have "secure" or "paranoid" in there. Default is "easy local".

...

...
Using a fresh 11.2 installation, crontab works. Besides "crontab" alone is not a valid command, there must be some option.

SYNOPSIS crontab [-u user] file crontab [-u user] [-l | -r | -e] [-i] [-s]

the 2nd line looks like all options are optional -- i.e., 'crontab' alone is fine.

No, it is not. This is the output on my system: bombadillo:~ # crontab crontab: usage error: file name must be specified for replace usage: crontab [-u user] file crontab [-u user] [ -e | -l | -r ] (default operation is replace, per 1003.2) -e (edit user's crontab) -l (list user's crontab) -r (delete user's crontab) - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAksqZJcACgkQtTMYHG2NR9W9rgCdEp4pz4aVOwGy4TJHOGLdZL+Z /LoAn1P+i2RnmgSVxx2kycbJHPBF+JBM =B/BA -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Ben DJ

17:12

New subject: [RESOLVED] Re: [opensuse] PAM prevents root access to crontab ?

Hi, Finally stumbled across this: http://en.opensuse.org/Cron_replace Replaced 11.2's cron with: zypper in cronie so now, rpm -qa | grep -i cronie cronie-1.4.3-213.1.x86_64 Now, 'crontab -e' works as expected. As a test, switch back to 'cron' reproduces the problem as in my OP. Afaict, the switch to cronie has not yet been mandated, but I'm guessing 'something' on my systems already has a requirement for it. BenDJ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Jan Ritzerfeld

17:25

Am Donnerstag, 17. Dezember 2009 schrieb Ben DJ:

...

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 8:28 AM, Jan Ritzerfeld

wrote:

...
The file /etc/pam.d/password-auth does not exist on both 11.1 and 11.2. Furthermore, "grep -r password-auth /etc/pam.d/" does not give any hit for me. Do you have any line like "...include...password-auth" in your /etc/pam.d/crond?

as installed -- i.e., I've never touched it, [...]

However, it looks *very* different from mine, see Carlos' reply. "rpm -qV cron" tells you what?

...

...
Using a fresh 11.2 installation, crontab works. Besides "crontab" alone is not a valid command, there must be some option.

SYNOPSIS crontab [-u user] file crontab [-u user] [-l | -r | -e] [-i] [-s]

the 2nd line looks like all options are optional -- i.e., 'crontab' alone is fine.

Well, these options are optional, but "-r" is the default option and indeed needs a file name. Nonetheless, you do not even get there, it was just a hint.

...

[...]

...
Well, I do not think that it would be that practical to mention every application that uses pam in the pam man page.

I didn't suggest that. [...]

Imagine that there was a smiley at the end of the line. :) Gruß Jan -- Ninety percent of everything is bullshit. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

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Ben DJ
Carlos E. R.
Jan Ritzerfeld
John Andersen