[Bug 790538] Re: pam update causes cron to stop working with "Module is unknown" error

[Morten Kjeldgaard]

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.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/790538

Title:
  pam update causes cron to stop working with "Module is unknown" error

Status in “pam” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Lucid:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Maverick:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Natty:
  Fix Released
Status in “pam” source package in Hardy:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Upgrading libpam-modules from 1.1.1-4ubuntu1 to 1.1.1-4ubuntu2.2, cron stopped working, just gives a log message "Module is unknown". This happened during unattended-upgrades this night, so there might be a lot of people who didn't realize that yet.
  Downgrading to 1.1.1-4ubuntu1 fixes this.
  Ubuntu 10.10 amd64, almost vanilla, fresh, minimum install + java (ppa) + postgresql9 (ppa).