Backup setu fails

alex4buba · 09-11-2020, 02:44 AM

A few days ago I managed to setup the script for anacrontab and the daily backup executed as expected.

Today, the backup didn't run. I checked the system log and I see this error...

No idea what to do about it?

Code:

pam_unix(sudo:auth): auth could not identify password for [alex]

Hope someone can give me a hint

Thanks
Alex

berndbausch · 09-11-2020, 05:53 AM

Ducking for "auth could not identify password ", I found a Stackexchange question that seems to match your case. If so, you may have malware on your PC.

What's strange, though, is the reference to sudo. Do you use sudo in your cron table? If not, I doubt that this is related. Is there anything in the cron log?

alex4buba · 09-11-2020, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

Ducking for "auth could not identify password ", I found a Stackexchange question that seems to match your case. If so, you may have malware on your PC.

What's strange, though, is the reference to sudo. Do you use sudo in your cron table? If not, I doubt that this is related. Is there anything in the cron log?

I use anacrontab, this is the script: Please understand, I am new to Linux

Code:

#!/bin/bash

#get day of week
dow=$(/usr/bin/date "+%a")

# convert DOW to lower case i.e. Mon to mon
ldow=${dow,,}

/usr/bin/rsync -a /home/alex/afolders/ /media/alex/Elements/$ldow/

and this is the script

Code:

# /etc/anajob: configuration file for anacron

# See anacron(8) and anacrontab(5) for details.

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
HOME=/root
LOGNAME=root

# These replace cron's entries
# Daily, 10 minutes delay, job name, command – executes the above job
1 10 my-backups /etc/anajob

What cron log? Where should I look?

Thaks
Alex

berndbausch · 09-11-2020, 09:56 AM

Sorry, my brain morphed your question and made me think you were talking about cron.

anacron logs to the CRON facility ("facility" is a fancy name for "log category"), and on my version of Ubuntu 20, such messages are stored in /var/log/syslog. You can identify them by the word "CRON" in all-caps.

Now, you have no sudo in your anacron table or the script that you launch with anacron. This makes me think that the "auth could not identify password" message is not related to your anacron problem.

It might still indicate a different problem, though keep in mind I base this assessment on a single Stackexchange question that I may have misunderstood.

To see messages generated by cron and anacron, use grep CRON /var/log/syslog.

alex4buba · 09-11-2020, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berndbausch

Sorry, my brain morphed your question and made me think you were talking about cron.

anacron logs to the CRON facility ("facility" is a fancy name for "log category"), and on my version of Ubuntu 20, such messages are stored in /var/log/syslog. You can identify them by the word "CRON" in all-caps.

Now, you have no sudo in your anacron table or the script that you launch with anacron. This makes me think that the "auth could not identify password" message is not related to your anacron problem.

It might still indicate a different problem, though keep in mind I base this assessment on a single Stackexchange question that I may have misunderstood.

To see messages generated by cron and anacron, use grep CRON /var/log/syslog.

Hello again,

I ran the command you suggested, and got the following response, which I have no idea what it means or what to do with it

Code:

alex@alex-NUC8i7HNK:~$ grep CRON /var/log/syslog
Sep 12 06:25:01 alex-NUC8i7HNK CRON[3799]: (root) CMD (test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily ))

MY syslog Important section messages this morning shows the attached image messages.

In the log you pointed me to CRN shows this:

Code:

Sep 12 06:25:01 alex-NUC8i7HNK CRON[3799]: (root) CMD (test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily ))
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK anacron[929]: Job `my-backups' started
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK anacron[929]: Job `my-backups' terminated (exit status: 11) (mailing output)
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK anacron[929]: anacron: Can't find sendmail at /usr/sbin/sendmail, not mailing output
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK anacron[929]: Can't find sendmail at /usr/sbin/sendmail, not mailing output
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK anacron[929]: Normal exit (1 job run)
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK systemd[1]: anacron.service: Killing process 3812 (rsync) with signal SIGKILL.
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK systemd[1]: anacron.service: Killing process 3812 (rsync) with signal SIGKILL.
Sep 12 06:27:24 alex-NUC8i7HNK systemd[1]: anacron.service: Succeeded.
Sep 12 06:27:46 alex-NUC8i7HNK PackageKit: daemon quit

-
It means nothing to me, maybe you can see something?

IN addition, Yesterday - my Evolution email system crashed twice. Too much to think it is a coincidance, I feel the two problems maybe related?

And last, so do you still consider Malware / virus or not?

Thaks for your time
Alex