Bug#566844: libc6 causing "Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info"

[root <bugtraq@camden.rutgers.edu>]

Package: libc6
Version: 2.7-18
Severity: critical
Justification: breaks unrelated software


I'm running Debian Lenny with a stock 2.6.26-2 AMD64 kernel, and after upgrading any of my systems to use the latest libc6 package from debian-security (2.7-18lenny2), all of my systems that use NIS can no longer authenticate.  All I get is "Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info".  If I upgrade a system to 2.7-18lenny2, I immediately start having problems, and as soon as I revert back to 2.7-18, everything works perfectly.  I've been using the same NIS setup for close to 5 years now, and have been moving it along from Sarge, to Etch, to Lenny without any problems...until now.

My /etc/nsswitch.conf:
  passwd:         compat
  group:          compat
  shadow:         compat

Like I said, I am using NIS, however both the NIS master server and the NIS clients both break when I upgrade libc6 to 2.7-18lenny2.  The NIS server is again, a stock Debian Lenny server.  With the NIS server, I am combining the passwd/shadow files on the NIS server into just the passwd map (using the MERGE_PASSWD option).  So the NIS clients don't actually see any shadow file entries for any of the NIS accounts.

I've also tried changing the nsswitch.conf file to:
  passwd:         nis files
  group:          nis files
  shadow:         files

You'll notice I left the "nis" option off of the shadow entry, since there's no need for it, since there's no "shadow" map.  My guess is that, this is the cause of the problem...In other words, because the system isn't seeing shadow entries, it's bailing out.  But why all of a sudden did this break in the latest libc6?  And is there a way to get the old functionality back?

And yes, if I create local accounts directly on the system itself, there are no problems, it's just the NIS accounts (again, I'm guessing because there is no shadow entries) that are causing me problems.

Please let me know if you need any further information from me.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.3
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.ISO-8859-15, LC_CTYPE=en_US.ISO-8859-15 (charmap=ISO-8859-15)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages libc6 depends on:
ii  libgcc1                      1:4.3.2-1.1 GCC support library

libc6 recommends no packages.

Versions of packages libc6 suggests:
pn  glibc-doc                     <none>     (no description available)
ii  locales                       2.7-18     GNU C Library: National Language (

-- debconf information:
  glibc/upgrade: true
  glibc/restart-failed:
  glibc/restart-services: