Werk #15184: Do not enforce password change for automation users

Komponente Site management
Titel Do not enforce password change for automation users
Datum 20.01.2023
Checkmk Edition Checkmk Raw (CRE)
Checkmk-Version 2.1.0p20 2.2.0b1
Level Kleine Änderung
Klasse Bugfix
Kompatibilität Kompatibel - benötigt kein manuelles Eingreifen

The enforce_pw_change flag is now ignored for automation users. Since automation users cannot change their passwords themselves, Checkmk will now no longer require them to do so, even if the flag is set.

Note that automation users can still be prevented from logging in if the password policy for local accounts defines a maximum password age.

This Werk is motivated by a fixup for Werk #14391, which could cause old automation users to be unable to log in.

Since Werk #14391 omd update / cmk-update-config looks for users whose passwords are hashed with outdated hashing schemes in etc/htpasswd. Users whose passwords were hashed with the insecure algorithms MD5 or DES Crypt are asked to change their password the next time they log in. Moreover, the administrator running the update will see a warning that lists the affected users.

That check did not properly exclude old automation users created by Checkmk < 1.6.0, although the check does not make sense for them. (Automation users do not log in the same way regular users do and their password hash is irrelevant.) As a result, the flag to require a password change was set also for automation users, preventing automation users from logging in. In addition, the automation users were mistakenly listed in the warning message mentioned above.

Note that automation users that have been created or had their automation secret changed with Checkmk >= 1.6.0 are not affected, as Checkmk didn't use the insecure hashing algorithms since version 1.6.0 (Werk #6846).

With this fix the flag to enforce a password change will no longer be set for automation users by that check and automation users will no longer be listed in the warning message. Moreover, since the flag is now ignored for automation users, they will be able to log in again, even if the flag has already been set.

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