[Bug 1860826] Re: pam_unix(sudo:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory

[Glen Duncan]

It also appears to affect cups.

# systemctl status cups.service
● cups.service - CUPS Scheduler
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/cups.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-11-05 15:45:21 EST; 32min ago
TriggeredBy: ● cups.path
             ● cups.socket
       Docs: man:cupsd(8)
   Main PID: 1216169 (cupsd)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 76795)
     Memory: 12.3M
     CGroup: /system.slice/cups.service
             ├─1216169 /usr/sbin/cupsd -l
             ├─1216235 /usr/lib/cups/notifier/dbus dbus://
             └─1216236 /usr/lib/cups/notifier/dbus dbus://

Nov 05 15:45:21 Cortex1 systemd[1]: Started CUPS Scheduler.
Nov 05 15:45:50 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
Nov 05 15:45:50 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
Nov 05 15:45:55 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
Nov 05 15:45:55 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
Nov 05 15:47:57 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
Nov 05 15:47:57 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
Nov 05 15:50:01 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
Nov 05 15:50:01 Cortex1 cupsd[1216169]: pam_unix(cups:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory

I created an empty file to silence the error, but I'm a bit dismayed
that this file was removed without coordination with the pam project, or
at least patching or configuring pam to avoid this error. Clearly this
impacts more than just a deprecated telnet.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1860826

Title:
  pam_unix(sudo:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or
  directory

Status in pam package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in pam source package in Groovy:
  Confirmed
Status in pam package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  Hello, after upgrading to focal I found the following in my journalctl
  output:

  Jan 24 23:07:00 millbarge sudo[32120]: pam_unix(sudo:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory
  Jan 24 23:07:01 millbarge sudo[32120]: pam_unix(sudo:auth): Couldn't open /etc/securetty: No such file or directory

  
  The login package stopped packaging this file:
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=731656
  and now forcibly removes the file:
  https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/myh9cGWrHD/

  However, the pam package's pam_unix.so module has not yet been adapted to ignore this file:
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=674857#25

  Thanks

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
  Package: libpam-modules 1.3.1-5ubuntu4
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-9.12-generic 5.4.3
  Uname: Linux 5.4.0-9-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu15
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Fri Jan 24 23:35:33 2020
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=rxvt-unicode-256color
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: pam
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-01-24 (0 days ago)

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