polkit-grant-helper-pam general protection fault (SIGSEGV) when using Kerberos

[David Anderson]

Binary package hint: policykit

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

apt-cache policy policykit
policykit:
  Installed: 0.9-4ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.9-4ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9-4ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I'm having no luck authenicating for package updates. I'm always meet with "Incorrect password, please try again", but I can sudo and run apitude just fine with the same username/password, So I then looked at /var/log/messages and see messages each time I tried the update of:
       Nov 6 11:49:36 pistol kernel: [339507.687074] polkit-grant-he[16661] general protection ip:7fefc0cc83c3 sp:7fff431a8a50 error:0 in libkrb5.so.3.3[7fefc0c7c000+ae000]

appears that polkit-grant-helper is SigFaulting when it is using pam with Kerberos.

So I straced the application and attached output below along with system information.

Note: /tmp permissions are:
 drwxrwxrwt 13 root root 12288 2009-11-06 13:27 tmp

Package info:
dpkg -S /usr/lib/policykit/polkit-grant-helper-pam
policykit: /usr/lib/policykit/polkit-grant-helper-pam

aptitude show policykit

Package: policykit
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 0.9-4ubuntu1
Priority: optional
Section: admin
...

root 16697 0.0 0.0 69584 1900 ? S 11:48 0:00 /usr/lib/policykit/polkit-grant-helper-pam

strace -p 16697
Process 16697 attached - interrupt to quit
...
See Attached file
...
gettimeofday({1257533513, 106533}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1257533513, 106556}, NULL) = 0
open("/tmp/krb5cc_pam_vAEda7", O_RDONLY) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)
gettimeofday({1257533513, 106670}, NULL) = 0
sendto(3, "<83>Nov 6 11:51:53 polkit-grant"..., 151, MSG_NOSIGNAL, NULL, 0) = 151
write(2, "polkit-grant-helper-pam: pam_acc"..., 70) = 70
--- SIGSEGV (Segmentation fault) @ 0 (0) ---
Process 16697 detached
root@pistol:~#

[Alex Mauer (hawke)]

I’m seeing the same problem.

One interesting thing to look at is /var/log/auth.log:

Jan 19 00:40:11 drowelf polkit-agent-helper-1[5553]: (pam_krb5): none: pam_sm_authenticate: entry (0x0)
Jan 19 00:40:11 drowelf polkit-agent-helper-1[5553]: (pam_krb5): user: attempting authentication as <email address hidden>
Jan 19 00:40:15 drowelf polkit-agent-helper-1[5553]: (pam_krb5): user: pam_sm_authenticate: exit (success)
Jan 19 00:40:15 drowelf polkit-agent-helper-1[5553]: (pam_krb5): user: cannot retrieve principal from cache: Credentials cache permissions incorrect

I think this and bug #476069 are probably closely related if not different symptoms of the same bug.

[Kim Botherway (dj-dvant)]

Hi,

I get the same, its very annoying when windows open asking for authentication and it wont accept:

Ubuntu 9.10
policykit:
  Installed: 0.9-4ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.9-4ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9-4ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ftp.iinet.net.au karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

syslog
Apr 11 22:28:27 server1 kernel: [ 2332.808639] polkit-grant-he[8002] general protection ip:7f1b9dc61463 sp:7fffdd555580 error:0 in libkrb5.so.3.3[7f1b9dc15000+ae000]

auth.log
Apr 11 22:28:27 server1 polkit-grant-helper-pam[8002]: (pam_krb5): user: cannot retrieve principal from cache: Credentials cache permissions incorrect