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  • Bug#1109146: /usr/bin/crontab: crontab -e not allowed although user in

    From Hans@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jul 12 16:00:01 2025
    Package: cron
    Version: 3.0pl1-162
    Severity: normal
    File: /usr/bin/crontab

    Dear Maintainer,
    maybe this is a bug. Two things:

    1. A normal user can is not allowed to edit crontab, i.e.:

    crontab -e
    /etc/cron.allow: Permission denied
    You (ullhan63) are not allowed to use this program (crontab)
    See crontab(1) for more information

    but the user is in /etc/cron.allow

    An /etc/cron.deny does NOT exist.

    This effects also other applications like "backintime", which need to edit crontab with user rights.

    2. Minor thing: The file /etc/cron.allow has rights rwx --- ---, that looks suspicios for me. Executable???
    Is this correct?


    Thanks for reading this.

    Best regards

    Hans



    -- Package-specific info:
    --- EDITOR:


    --- /usr/bin/editor:
    /usr/bin/jove

    --- /usr/bin/crontab:
    -rwxr-sr-x 1 root crontab 43648 Mar 2 2023 /usr/bin/crontab

    --- /var/spool/cron:
    drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 May 14 2023 /var/spool/cron

    --- /var/spool/cron/crontabs:
    drwx-wx--T 2 root crontab 4096 Jul 9 13:25 /var/spool/cron/crontabs

    --- /etc/cron.d:
    drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jul 9 13:14 /etc/cron.d

    --- /etc/cron.daily:
    drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 17 12:19 /etc/cron.daily

    --- /etc/cron.hourly:
    drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 14 2023 /etc/cron.hourly

    --- /etc/cron.monthly:
    drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 28 2024 /etc/cron.monthly

    --- /etc/cron.weekly:
    drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 26 2024 /etc/cron.weekly


    -- System Information:
    Debian Release: 12.11
    APT prefers stable-updates
    APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
    Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
    Foreign Architectures: i386

    Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-37-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
    Ke
  • From Chris Hofstaedtler@21:1/5 to Hans on Sat Jul 12 20:00:01 2025
    On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 03:42:18PM +0200, Hans wrote:
    1. A normal user can is not allowed to edit crontab, i.e.:

    crontab -e
    /etc/cron.allow: Permission denied
    You (ullhan63) are not allowed to use this program (crontab)
    See crontab(1) for more information

    but the user is in /etc/cron.allow

    An /etc/cron.deny does NOT exist.

    This effects also other applications like "backintime", which need to edit crontab with user rights.

    2. Minor thing: The file /etc/cron.allow has rights rwx --- ---, that looks suspicios for me. Executable???
    Is this correct?

    Probably not. When I create an /etc/cron.allow with these
    permissions, then indeed crontab always fails with "Permission
    denied".

    I would suggest correcting the permissions on your /etc/cron.allow
    or deleting it.

    Chris

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