Some user accounts disabled after update

Ask Fedora
1

Not sure which update is causing it, but just a few days there were several user accounts I regularly log into via su - that I can no longer log into after the recent updates.

These user accounts all have two things in common:

  1. They have worked just fine until now

  2. They have an empty GECOS field (fifth field, used for account comment, often but not always a real name).

As an experiment, I modified /etc/passwd and inserted foo bar into that field for one of the accounts and now I can log into that account via su - again.

What do I need to do to get back to the decades-long classic behavior where that field can be empty?

2

I’m trying to repo your problem, but su

$ grep qqq /etc/passwd
qqq:x:1002:1002::/home/qqq:/bin/bash

$ su -l qqq -c id
Password:
uid=1002(qqq) gid=1002(qqq) groups=1002(qqq) context=unconfined_u:unconfined_r:unconfined_t:s0-s0:c0.c1023

$ su - qqq
Password:
qqq@worthy:~$

Does that match the passwd entry?

Edit: Add su version

$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/su
util-linux-2.41.5-1.fc44.x86_64
3

Did you check the system journal for logs when this work and when it fails?
I see messages from su and audit.

4

The issue has cleared up, it’s no longer happening. Only thing I did was a reboot, not even another update (there is nothing to update).