GNU bug report logs - #53631
coreutils id(1) incorrect behavior

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From: "Vladimir D. Seleznev" <vseleznv <at> altlinux.org>
To: 53631 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: "Vladimir D. Seleznev" <vseleznv <at> altlinux.org>
Subject: bug#53631: coreutils id(1) incorrect behavior
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2022 03:52:29 +0300

Hi, bug-coreutils@!

Recently I found an issue in the coreutils id(1) behavior. For coreutils
v8.32-165-g18dbcae25, `id username` prints user and group IDs for the
first matched user with the identical UID. In the case where there are
several users with the identical UID in the system it can be misleading.

Example:

	# useradd user1
	# groupadd somegroup
	# useradd -o -u "$(id -u user1)" -g "$(id -G user1) -G somegroup user2
	# id user1
	uid=1027(user1) gid=1027(user1) groups=1027(user1)
	# id user2
	uid=1027(user1) gid=1027(user1) groups=1027(user1)
	# su - user2
	$ id
	uid=1027(user1) gid=1027(user1) groups=1027(user1),1028(somegroup)

Expected behavior is:

	# id user1
	uid=1027(user1) gid=1027(user1) groups=1027(user1)
	# id user2
	uid=1027(user1) gid=1027(user1) groups=1027(user1),1028(somegroup)

Looking at the code, I found that id uses parse_user_spec() to obtain
euid of username (or uid) command line argument, and then it obtains all
the rest needed information by this euid.

	for (; optind < n_ids; optind++)
	{
	  struct passwd *pwd = NULL;
	  char const *spec = argv[optind];
	  /* Disallow an empty spec here as parse_user_spec() doesn't
	     give an error for that as it seems it's a valid way to
	     specify a noop or "reset special bits" depending on the system.  */
	  if (*spec)
	    {
	      if (parse_user_spec (spec, &euid, NULL, NULL, NULL) == NULL)
		{
		  /* parse_user_spec will only extract a numeric spec,
		     so we lookup that here to verify and also retrieve
		     the PW_NAME used subsequently in group lookup.  */
		  pwd = getpwuid (euid);
		}
	    }


-- 
   WBR,
   Vladimir D. Seleznev

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