From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Sep 4 16:16: 7 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5104737B400 for ; Wed, 4 Sep 2002 16:16:05 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7197D43E42 for ; Wed, 4 Sep 2002 16:16:04 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk ([IPv6:::1]) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id g84NG0Gk029912; Thu, 5 Sep 2002 00:16:00 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost) by happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id g84NFtC5029911; Thu, 5 Sep 2002 00:15:55 +0100 (BST) Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 00:15:55 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman To: "Brian T. Schellenberger" Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: passwd: Permission denied Message-ID: <20020904231555.GC28529@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> References: <200209041755.24531.bts@babbleon.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200209041755.24531.bts@babbleon.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, Sep 04, 2002 at 05:55:24PM -0400, Brian T. Schellenberger wrote: > > I have a user account that can't change its own password. If it tries, > it gets: > > passwd: Permission denied That usually indicates an attempt by an ordinary non-privileged user to change the password of another user. When you cloned the account did you perhaps not give it a unique UID number? This snippet will print out how often each UID number is mentioned in the master.passwd file: awk -F: '{ print $3 }' < /etc/master.passwd | sort -n | uniq -c It can also occur if you remove the SUID bit from /usr/bin/passwd or mount /usr nosuid, but then no one other than root would be able to change passwords. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message