[Bug 2125] New: Error message "You don't exist, go away!"

[bugzilla-daemon at mindrot.org]

https://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2125

            Bug ID: 2125
           Summary: Error message "You don't exist, go away!"
           Product: Portable OpenSSH
           Version: 6.2p1
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: trivial
          Priority: P5
         Component: ssh
          Assignee: unassigned-bugs at mindrot.org
          Reporter: bugmenot at mailinator.com

I had this reported by a user today and wasn't able to debug it at all,
until I searched for the error message in the OpenSSH sources and found
in ssh.c:

        /* Get user data. */
        pw = getpwuid(original_real_uid);
        if (!pw) {
                logit("You don't exist, go away!");
                exit(255);
        }

>From the user and support perspective, this message ("go away",
implying that there is a "here" and a "there", which is where the
server kindly requests the user to stay) suggests that there was an
issue with the target SSH server. Having seen the ssh.c source, it was
in fact simple to verify that the user tried to log in during a 30
second unavailability of the LDAP server that serves her own UID. 

Considering the fact that this is only visible to the user, it would be
prudent to disclose the actual condition. "ssh: Error resolving your
UID" would have been helpful already.

The same message can be found in ssh-keygen, by the way. Thanks for
your time! :-)

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