Any system has its weak spots. This incident is an illustration that cron is such a weak spot and breakage can be devastating, and as Chris wrote in #41, it is lucky that sshd did not break, or things would have been a lot worse.
Offhand, I see two possible solutions:
* cron should be built with it's own PAM security system, not relying on other system components
* a backup system could register if cron is not running, and take appropriate action, maintaining vital tasks until cron is working again.
Any system has its weak spots. This incident is an illustration that cron is such a weak spot and breakage can be devastating, and as Chris wrote in #41, it is lucky that sshd did not break, or things would have been a lot worse.
Offhand, I see two possible solutions:
* cron should be built with it's own PAM security system, not relying on other system components
* a backup system could register if cron is not running, and take appropriate action, maintaining vital tasks until cron is working again.