Hi,

Grzegorz Gutowski (gzegzol) wrote on 2014-04-29: "Without suid it seems
that call (with correct username) to getspnam in function
get_account_info in file passverify.c in pam/modules/pam_unix returns
NULL. I don't understand this behaviour. I wrote a simple c program that
calls getspnam and it works as expected when called from unprivileged
user."

A call to getspnam(3) as an unprivileged user returns NULL; that's
expected. (nss_compat returns errno = EACCESS since we can't read
/etc/shadow; nss_ldapd returns errno = ENOENT as a generic "not found"
code.)

The unix_chkpwd helper is sgid to shadow so that it can read
/etc/shadow, but nss_ldapd still returns ENOENT to shadow queries. If we
make unix_chkpwd suid, then nss_ldapd returns real shadow results; but
this is only a workaround (and a potentially dangerous one, at that).

What I see happening when I attempt to unlock the screen:

- the auth stack is fine;
- in the account stack, pam_unix returns PAM_AUTHINFO_UNAVAIL (from 
unix_chkpwd), and it falls into pam_deny after that (since pam_ldap is 
Additional).

gnome-screensaver works only because it actually ignores the result from
the account stack and proceeds anyway: http://bazaar.launchpad.net
/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/trusty/gnome-screensaver/trusty/view/head:/src
/gs-auth-pam.c#L519

Some possible workarounds are:

- chmod u+s /sbin/unix_chkpwd (potentially dangerous, not recommended);
- dpkg-reconfigure libnss-ldapd and disable the shadow service (then pam_unix 
doesn't try consulting it);
- use libnss-ldap instead of libnss-ldapd, since it allows everyone to read 
shadow entries;
- use libnss-sss instead of libnss-ldapd, since it does not support the shadow 
service at all (in trusty, at least);
- make libpam-ldapd's account rule Primary instead of Additional (but this was 
already done and subsequently reverted by its maintainer in 0.8.8-1 and 
0.8.8-2).

I'm not sure why some people reported experiencing this bug when using
libnss-ldap or libnss-sss. I'd want to review their PAM and NSS setups
in that case.

This is all about trusty so far... still have to look at utopic/vivid.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1314095

Title:
  Unity Lockscreen in 14.04 can't unlock when using LDAP account

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/1314095/+subscriptions

-- 
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs

Reply via email to