[Bug 2075508] [NEW] pam-auth-update should allow for comments in pam-configs profiles

[Kodiak Firesmith]

Public bug reported:

Hello Ubuntu PAM maintainers.  I've noticed that while not fatal, there
are profile parsing errors when pam-auth-update encounters typical
comment lines as it attempts to treat each new line that isn't part of
another field as a $fieldname like so:

Use of uninitialized value $fieldname in hash element at /usr/sbin/pam-auth-update line 733, <PROFILE> line 1.
Use of uninitialized value $fieldname in hash element at /usr/sbin/pam-auth-update line 734, <PROFILE> line 1.
Use of uninitialized value $fieldname in hash element at /usr/sbin/pam-auth-update line 737, <PROFILE> line 1.

You can reproduce this by placing a `#` on a new line of the profile.

This is important to me because I have to do some unclean or less than
ideal trickery described in 2075389, and I want to be able to explain my
reasoning for doing so within the profile for the next person who comes
across it.

Even if it were not the case due to that bug, I'd still like to be able
to place descriptive comments into our custom profile as the whole
PAMConfigFramework is not exhaustively documented and was not very
approachable to a new profile author without a lot of investigation.

Thanks!

Ubuntu releases tested: 20.04, 22.04, 24.04

Package versions are: libpam-runtime 1.3.1-5ubuntu4.7 (20.04),
1.4.0-11ubuntu2.4 (22.04), 1.5.3-5ubuntu5.1 (24.04)

Expectation: pam-auth-update discards any comment-like content
(especially `^#`, but perhaps also `^;` and `^//`.

Instead:  Parsing errors

** Affects: pam (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: pam pam-auth-update

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2075508

Title:
  pam-auth-update should allow for comments in pam-configs profiles

Status in pam package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Hello Ubuntu PAM maintainers.  I've noticed that while not fatal,
  there are profile parsing errors when pam-auth-update encounters
  typical comment lines as it attempts to treat each new line that isn't
  part of another field as a $fieldname like so:

  Use of uninitialized value $fieldname in hash element at /usr/sbin/pam-auth-update line 733, <PROFILE> line 1.
  Use of uninitialized value $fieldname in hash element at /usr/sbin/pam-auth-update line 734, <PROFILE> line 1.
  Use of uninitialized value $fieldname in hash element at /usr/sbin/pam-auth-update line 737, <PROFILE> line 1.

  You can reproduce this by placing a `#` on a new line of the profile.

  This is important to me because I have to do some unclean or less than
  ideal trickery described in 2075389, and I want to be able to explain
  my reasoning for doing so within the profile for the next person who
  comes across it.

  Even if it were not the case due to that bug, I'd still like to be
  able to place descriptive comments into our custom profile as the
  whole PAMConfigFramework is not exhaustively documented and was not
  very approachable to a new profile author without a lot of
  investigation.

  Thanks!

  Ubuntu releases tested: 20.04, 22.04, 24.04

  Package versions are: libpam-runtime 1.3.1-5ubuntu4.7 (20.04),
  1.4.0-11ubuntu2.4 (22.04), 1.5.3-5ubuntu5.1 (24.04)

  Expectation: pam-auth-update discards any comment-like content
  (especially `^#`, but perhaps also `^;` and `^//`.

  Instead:  Parsing errors

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