Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 1280433
Default setting of first_valid_uid = 500 conflicts with system users
Last modified: 2016-11-04 03:22:50 EDT
Description of problem: Default setting of first_valid_uid conflicts with system users: The default as per /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf is 500 while real system users are also above UID 500, because the regular users at RHEL start at UID 1000. So this is leading to the following errors by default: $ doveadm purge -A doveadm(polkitd): Error: user polkitd: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/polkitd/mailboxes) failed: Permission denied (euid=999(polkitd) egid=997(polkitd) missing +w perm: /home, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) doveadm(polkitd): Error: User init failed doveadm(dovenull): Error: user dovenull: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/dovenull/mailboxes) failed: Permission denied (euid=998(dovenull) egid=996(dovenull) missing +w perm: /home, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) doveadm(dovenull): Error: User init failed doveadm(unbound): Error: user unbound: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/unbound/mailboxes) failed: Permission denied (euid=997(unbound) egid=995(unbound) missing +w perm: /home, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) doveadm(unbound): Error: User init failed doveadm(saslauth): Error: user saslauth: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/saslauth/mailboxes) failed: Permission denied (euid=996(saslauth) egid=76(saslauth) missing +w perm: /home, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) doveadm(saslauth): Error: User init failed doveadm(nfsnobody): Error: user nfsnobody: Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/home/nfsnobody/mailboxes) failed: Permission denied (euid=65534(nfsnobody) egid=65534(nfsnobody) missing +w perm: /home, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) doveadm(nfsnobody): Error: User init failed $ Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): dovecot-2.2.10-4.el7_0.1.x86_64 How reproducible: Everytime, see above and below. Actual results: Default setting of first_valid_uid = 500 conflicts with system users. Expected results: Change default from 500 to 1000 to avoid conflicts with system users.
Note, the userdb is passwd - I am not aware that there already a restriction would be possible.
Cross-filed case 01538032 on the Red Hat customer portal.
Verified on RHEL-7.3 Beta with dovecot-2.2.10-7.el7. Value of first_valid_uid in dovecot's config file is now 1000 (instead of 500).
Since the problem described in this bug report should be resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated files, follow the link below. If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report. https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2016-2477.html