[Bug 2039541] Re: groupmems prompts for password when run as sudo/root

[Seth Arnold]

Nice find.

My guess is that the Debian maintainer forgot to include the pam.d
configuration file supplied by upstream when this new tool was included:

- https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/blob/master/etc/pam.d/groupmems
- https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=663117

We could decide either to:

- support the tool properly and include the pam.d file
- drop the tool entirely because we've made it this far without anyone noticing, and we made it several decades before someone wrote the tool in the first place
- ignore it entirely because it doesn't seem to be hurting anything as it is

Properly including the tool might bring with it any security problems
that it might have. Leaving it alone probably doesn't bring security
problems.

In any event we should also file a bug with Debian so they can make a
decision, too.

Thanks

** Bug watch added: Debian Bug tracker #663117
   https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=663117

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2039541

Title:
  groupmems prompts for password when run as sudo/root

Status in shadow package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  When trying to clear users from a group using the groupmems command,
  the user is always prompted for the root's password, even when running
  as root or via sudo:

  (as root)
  # addgroup testgroup
  # groupmems -g testgroup -p
  Password:

  (via sudo)
  # sudo addgroup testgroup
  # sudo groupmems -g testgroup -p
  Password:

  I'm not sure if this is desired behavior, but I would expect this
  command to work without the root password.

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