[Bug 1342875] [NEW] Unable to delete currently logged in user

[Robert C Jennings]

Public bug reported:

A user can not delete themselves using the command 'sudo userdel -rf
<username>', this is common in cloud tools that clean up running images
prior to capture.  A quick test shows that this worked from Precise
(didn't look back further) to Raring and stopped working with Saucy.

Here's a quick example of the failure (from trusty):
# sudo adduser test
# sudo usermod -aG sudo test
## As the 'test' user
# sudo userdel -rf test
userdel: user test is currently used by process 9600
userdel: cannot open /etc/subuid
## User is not removed

Previously (output from precise)
# sudo userdel -rf test
userdel: user test is currently logged in
userdel: warning: can't remove /var/mail/test: No such file or directory
## User is removed

This is being run as the last command by tools that remove the 'ubuntu'
user to clean the image prior to capture.  This had previously worked
and it is preferable that this could be made to work again.  The
alternative is removal by root, but the root user on cloud images is
locked down and we would not want the user to enable root to run userdel
on the risk of it not getting disabled properly prior to image capture.

** Affects: shadow (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1342875

Title:
  Unable to delete currently logged in user

Status in “shadow” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  A user can not delete themselves using the command 'sudo userdel -rf
  <username>', this is common in cloud tools that clean up running
  images prior to capture.  A quick test shows that this worked from
  Precise (didn't look back further) to Raring and stopped working with
  Saucy.

  Here's a quick example of the failure (from trusty):
  # sudo adduser test
  # sudo usermod -aG sudo test
  ## As the 'test' user
  # sudo userdel -rf test
  userdel: user test is currently used by process 9600
  userdel: cannot open /etc/subuid
  ## User is not removed

  Previously (output from precise)
  # sudo userdel -rf test
  userdel: user test is currently logged in
  userdel: warning: can't remove /var/mail/test: No such file or directory
  ## User is removed

  This is being run as the last command by tools that remove the
  'ubuntu' user to clean the image prior to capture.  This had
  previously worked and it is preferable that this could be made to work
  again.  The alternative is removal by root, but the root user on cloud
  images is locked down and we would not want the user to enable root to
  run userdel on the risk of it not getting disabled properly prior to
  image capture.

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