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Date:      Fri, 22 Mar 2002 15:36:57 -0500
From:      Anthony Schneider <aschneid@mail.slc.edu>
To:        Fernan Aguero <fernan@iib.unsam.edu.ar>
Cc:        FreeBSD Security <freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: su -c user command not working
Message-ID:  <20020322153657.A3593@mail.slc.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20020322165816.A561@iib.unsam.edu.ar>; from fernan@iib.unsam.edu.ar on Fri, Mar 22, 2002 at 04:58:17PM -0300
References:  <20020322165816.A561@iib.unsam.edu.ar>

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the -c flag passes a command to the shell of the user you are su'ing to,
so since user man's shell is /sbin/nologin, /sbin/nologin is (according
to su) supposed to interpret the command 'catman' and execute it,
however /sbin/nologin doesn't interpret commands, it just prints the
message "This account is currently unavailable" (just as it did for you)
and then exits.  for 'su -c' to work, the user you are su'ing to needs
something to actually interpret the command.  i suggest you either change
that user's passwd info to have such a shell, or you to an account that
has such a shell.

as for xterm reading your .cshrc, you need to pass it the option -ls,=20
which tells it to launch a login shell.

-Anthony.

On Fri, Mar 22, 2002 at 04:58:17PM -0300, Fernan Aguero wrote:
> I wonder if this is security related.=20
>=20
> Basically I'd like to know if this has been disabled for security
> reasons.
>=20
> According to su(1) you can do something like:=20
> su man -c catman
>   Runs the command catman as user man.  You will be asked for man's
>   password unless your real UID is 0.
> =09
> However, I am refused to run the example in this way (I am root, of=20
> course).=20
>=20
> root> su man -c catman
> This account is currently not available.
>=20
> man is listed in /etc/passwd with /sbin/nologin as shell
>=20
> I'd also like to know why my ~/.cshrc is not read when I log in or
> open an xterm. I have to source it every time. Is this also related to
> the previous issue (disabled for some reason?)
>=20
> I am running FreeBSD-4.3 (RELENG_4_3), and except for some minor
> things haven't done major configuration or editing of system base
> defaults.
>=20
> Thanks in advance for any help or pointers,
>=20
> Fernan
>=20
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
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