-bash: /etc/bash.bashrc: Permission denied I have no name

linux bash debian

7,791

In order to read /etc/bash.bashrc (and /etc/password) the permissions on the parent directories matter, too. In particular, you need +x on them. In your case (from the chat conversation) it turns out somehow the permissions on /etc were wrong.

The inability to read /etc/passwd is why bash and whoami can't find your username.

Debian's default for /etc is 0755; so chmod 0755 /etc (as root) will fix at least that immediate problem. You should also investigate how that happened, to determine if there might be other directories with incorrect permissions.

7,791

Canadian Luke

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Canadian Luke over 1 year
I have a Debian Wheezy server running, and a test-backup was just run - However, it went the other way! I cleaned it up the best I could, but I'm getting a VERY annoying error now.

Root login is disabled via SSH. The user has to log in as a regular user, then execute su to get Root access. When I log in as my user, I get the following message:
```
-bash: /etc/bash.bashrc: Permission denied
I have no name!@server:~$
```
When I execute aa whoami:
```
$ whoami
whoami: cannot find name for user ID 1000
```
Checking my /etc/passwd file, those user IDs do exist! The permissions on /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/passwd are 644, owned by root:root. Checking on another server, the /etc/bash.bashrc files match up the same, no changes required.

There is the silver lining in that I can su into the root user, and access what I need, but I shouldn't need to do this. I cannot find any relevant log entries under /var/log, as they just show the successful login attempts (auth.log), but no errors. What can I do to allow the regular users to login again? Below is an exert of my /etc/passwd file, showing that the user ID 1000 exists:
```
lbarone:x:1000:1000:Luke Barone,,,:/home/lbarone:/bin/bash
```
- Canadian Luke almost 10 years
  
  @MaQleod correct, local authentication only
- mtak almost 10 years
  
  Is you nsswitch.conf set up correctly? There should be a line with passwd: files or passwd: compat.
- mihi almost 10 years
  
  permissions on /etc/bash.bashrc? On which filesystem does it reside? Any strange mount options for it? Does the output of id -G prints the correct group ids? - and for the "i have no name" - run hostname command and/or check file /etc/hostname
- mihi almost 10 years
  
  And another thing to check would be ldd $(which bash) and verify that all the dynamic libraries can be found and have the right permissions
- Canadian Luke almost 10 years
  
  644, Ext4, no weird mount options, hostname is normal. When executing id -n, it outputs id: cannot print only names or real IDs in default format. The ldd one lists only 5 files, all with links with 777 permissions
- terdon almost 10 years
  
  Could you pass your /etc/passwd through od -c to check for any weird characters? Clutching at straws here but you never know.
- Canadian Luke almost 10 years
  
  @terdon Nope, the only 2-character items are \n for the new lines
- derobert almost 10 years
  
  As your non-root user, can you cat /etc/passwd? Also, do you have SELinux or some other security layer enabled?
- Canadian Luke almost 10 years
  
  @derobert $ cat /etc/passwd cat: /etc/passwd: Permission denied