From: Martin McCormick (martindc.cis.okstate.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 03 2003 - 09:28:38 CST

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        What might cause all users except root to get "permission denied"
every time they try to change their passwords on a new system?

        Here's the scenario:

$ passwd
Changing local password for martin.
Old password:
passwd: Permission denied
passwd: /etc/master.passwd: unchanged
$

        I have checked permissions on /etc/master.passwd and
/etc/passwd and they agree with the corresponding files on
another 4.7 system that works.

$ ls -l /etc/*passwd
-rw------- 1 root wheel 1605 Mar 3 08:12 /etc/master.passwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1367 Mar 3 08:12 /etc/passwd
$ cd /
$ ls -l |grep usr
drwxr-xr-x 16 root wheel 512 Nov 11 11:34 usr
$ ls -l /usr/bin/passwd
-r-sr-xr-x 2 root wheel 32504 Oct 9 07:51 /usr/bin/passwd

        When I built that system, I installed from a CDROM and
then overlayed some files from an older system for the user
directories including mine. I thought I might have ended up with
a different uid on this system, but that is not the case.

        I even tried pwd_mkdb /etc/master.passwd as root which
worked all right, but it didn't fix or change anything. Where
else might I look to figure out what I accidentally did to cause
this problem?

        If I ssh to the system from another system and try to use
a password to get in, I also get Permission denied messages.
What really happens is that the first 3 prompts just say
"password:" and then I see "martin's password:" and then I get
denied until I run out of retries.

        This system is a server and is doing fine in that
respect. ssh with exchange of public keys and the ability to su
to root is the only way I can get in right now, but that method
works normally. The password permission problem appears to be
the only thing that is broken.

        Thank you for any constructive suggestions as I haven't
found anything that looks odd yet.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Network Operations Group

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