Bug#473828: hosts: Unreasonable impact of misconfigured /etc/hosts file
2008/4/2, Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net>:
> On 01-Apr-08, 16:13 (CDT), Ulrik Sverdrup <ulrik.sverdrup@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Package: general
> > Severity: normal
> >
> > The impact of a misconfigured /etc/hosts file can be quite grave.
> >
> > Prime example: If the hostname is not in /etc/hosts, sudo does not run
> > which means that the problem can not be resolved without direct root
> > login or single user mode. See also bug #473827
>
>
> I can't duplicate this, on a up to date lenny system. Even
> commenting-out all the IP4 addresses didn't cause a problem.
>
> Removing /etc/hostname *and* /etc/resolv.conf causes:
>
> $ sudo -s
> sudo: unable to resolve host orca
> root@orca:~#
>
> But it still works.
>
> Steve
When I encountered this, described briefly but a bit more in #473827,
I didn't see anything as long as I had network/internet access.
However, when totally offline, the bug triggered. Thus you could try
to pull out the network cable and try again. I'll have to come up with
a practical restore method before trying to reproduce it myself
though.
Ulrik
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