sudo crashes with pam_mount.c:417: modify_pm_count: Assertion `user != ((void *)0)' failed.

[Christian Mertes]

For a while using sudo is not a problem but suddenly it starts failing every time with:

sudo: pam_mount.c:417: modify_pm_count: Assertion `user != ((void *)0)' failed.

It just happened *during* an "apt-get dist-upgrade". A reboot is necessary to recover the ability to sudo.

This seems to be the same problem as the upstream bug http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=648698 "sudo: calls pam_close_session without prior pam_open_session"

I changed my /etc/security/pam_mount.conf.xml according to this (German) howto http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Daten_verschl%C3%BCsseln#luks
The file is attached to this bug, as well as an strace of sudo.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: libpam-mount 2.10-2build1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-19.30-generic 3.2.11
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Mar 21 12:43:58 2012
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20120201.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/usr/bin/fizsh
SourcePackage: libpam-mount
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
mtime.conffile..etc.security.pam.mount.conf.xml: 2012-03-20T22:28:41.812564

[Christian Mertes (cmertes)]

I should add that a logout/relogin is also sufficient to reset the sudo capability. Also, for anyone else affected: the only workaround I could come up with is a sudo bash directly after login and do everything you need root for from there. That way you don't have to log out when this happens. It also defies the purpose of sudo in a way but well.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.