User PostgreSQL added/un-hidden after update

hey, yesterday i did a full system update, after which i shut down the computer, i just started it and i saw a user named "PostgreSQL" in the login-field, and i'd like to know how it got there, because i never added such a user. now the weird part: userdel nor the /etc/passwd file know said user, is there something to get which process is using said user and - if necessary - purge the user that "somehow doesn't exist"

System:    Kernel: 5.14.16-zen1-1-zen x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen root=UUID=c004acea-73f0-4fe1-9afc-7ab18ce1c3d0 rw
rootflags=subvol=@
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.23.2 tk: Qt 5.15.2 info: latte-dock wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux
base: Arch Linux
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: MSI X58 Pro-E (MS-7522) v: 3.0 serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 8.14B8
date: 11/09/2012
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7 930 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem family: 6 model-id: 1A (26)
stepping: 5 microcode: 1D cache: L2: 8 MiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 44911
Speed: 1633 MHz min/max: 1600/2800 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1633 2: 2608 3: 1768 4: 1757 5: 1645
6: 2114 7: 2553 8: 2200
Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT vulnerable
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] driver: nvidia v: 495.44 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 03:00.0
chip-ID: 10de:13c2 class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 93 s-size: 1049x292mm (41.3x11.5") s-diag: 1089mm (42.9")
Monitor-1: HDMI-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 94 size: 521x293mm (20.5x11.5") diag: 598mm (23.5")
Monitor-2: DP-5 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 102 size: 477x268mm (18.8x10.6") diag: 547mm (21.5")
OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 495.44 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801JI HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
chip-ID: 8086:3a3e class-ID: 0403
Device-2: NVIDIA GM204 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fbb
class-ID: 0403
Device-3: JMTek LLC. USB PnP Audio Device type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 4-1:2
chip-ID: 0c76:161e class-ID: 0300
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.14.16-zen1-1-zen running: yes
Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no
Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.39 running: yes
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless 7265 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:095a class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp4s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e800 bus-ID: 06:00.0
chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 6-1:2 chip-ID: 8087:0a2a
class-ID: e001
Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: no
address: <filter>
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.36 TiB used: 807.55 GiB (57.9%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-00WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB block-size:
physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR
ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Silicon Power model: SPCC Solid State Disk size: 238.47 GiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 9A0 scheme: MBR
ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Crucial model: CT240BX500SSD1 size: 223.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 041 scheme: MBR
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 206.39 GiB size: 206.39 GiB (100.00%) used: 98.27 GiB (47.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdc1
maj-min: 8:33
ID-2: /home raw-size: 206.39 GiB size: 206.39 GiB (100.00%) used: 98.27 GiB (47.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdc1
maj-min: 8:33
ID-3: /var/log raw-size: 206.39 GiB size: 206.39 GiB (100.00%) used: 98.27 GiB (47.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdc1
maj-min: 8:33
ID-4: /var/tmp raw-size: 206.39 GiB size: 206.39 GiB (100.00%) used: 98.27 GiB (47.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdc1
maj-min: 8:33
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 17.18 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sdc2 maj-min: 8:34
ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 15.62 GiB used: 1.2 MiB (0.0%) priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 50 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 30%
Info:      Processes: 279 Uptime: 14m wakeups: 0 Memory: 15.62 GiB used: 4.91 GiB (31.4%) Init: systemd v: 249 tool: systemctl
Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 12.0.1 Packages: 1610 pacman: 1605 lib: 385 flatpak: 5 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.08

Post the output of
cat /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/group
As text.

Also, I guess it might actually be a feature of postgresql, so that you can login to your postgresql user from display manager itself. PostgreSQL creates another user while installation anyway.
It would be more appropriate to ask postgresql devs anyway.

2 Likes

Do not

Or at least take the hashes out of there first :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

1 Like

/etc/passwd

root:x:0:0::/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1::/:/usr/bin/nologin
daemon:x:2:2::/:/usr/bin/nologin
mail:x:8:12::/var/spool/mail:/usr/bin/nologin
ftp:x:14:11::/srv/ftp:/usr/bin/nologin
http:x:33:33::/srv/http:/usr/bin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:Nobody:/:/usr/bin/nologin
dbus:x:81:81:System Message Bus:/:/usr/bin/nologin
systemd-journal-remote:x:981:981:systemd Journal Remote:/:/usr/bin/nologin
systemd-network:x:980:980:systemd Network Management:/:/usr/bin/nologin
systemd-oom:x:979:979:systemd Userspace OOM Killer:/:/usr/bin/nologin
systemd-resolve:x:978:978:systemd Resolver:/:/usr/bin/nologin
systemd-timesync:x:977:977:systemd Time Synchronization:/:/usr/bin/nologin
systemd-coredump:x:976:976:systemd Core Dumper:/:/usr/bin/nologin
uuidd:x:68:68::/:/usr/bin/nologin
avahi:x:975:975:Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD daemon:/:/usr/bin/nologin
git:x:974:974:git daemon user:/:/usr/bin/git-shell
polkitd:x:102:102:PolicyKit daemon:/:/usr/bin/nologin
rpc:x:32:32:Rpcbind Daemon:/var/lib/rpcbind:/usr/bin/nologin
tss:x:973:973:tss user for tpm2:/:/usr/bin/nologin
prelockd:x:972:971::/home/prelockd:/bin/false
memavaild:x:971:970::/home/memavaild:/bin/false
named:x:40:40:BIND DNS Server:/:/usr/bin/nologin
colord:x:968:968:Color management daemon:/var/lib/colord:/usr/bin/nologin
dnsmasq:x:967:967:dnsmasq daemon:/:/usr/bin/nologin
geoclue:x:966:966:Geoinformation service:/var/lib/geoclue:/usr/bin/nologin
nm-openconnect:x:965:965:NetworkManager OpenConnect:/:/usr/bin/nologin
nm-openvpn:x:964:964:NetworkManager OpenVPN:/:/usr/bin/nologin
ntp:x:87:87:Network Time Protocol:/var/lib/ntp:/bin/false
ldap:x:439:439:LDAP Server:/var/lib/openldap:/usr/bin/nologin
openvpn:x:963:963:OpenVPN:/:/usr/bin/nologin
rtkit:x:133:133:RealtimeKit:/proc:/usr/bin/nologin
sddm:x:962:962:Simple Desktop Display Manager:/var/lib/sddm:/usr/bin/nologin
usbmux:x:140:140:usbmux user:/:/usr/bin/nologin
ash:x:1000:1000:ash:/home/ash:/bin/bash
nvidia-persistenced:x:143:143:NVIDIA Persistence Daemon:/:/usr/bin/nologin
flatpak:x:961:961:Flatpak system helper:/:/usr/bin/nologin
brltty:x:958:958:Braille Device Daemon:/var/lib/brltty:/usr/bin/nologin
gluster:x:957:957:GlusterFS daemons:/var/run/gluster:/usr/bin/nologin
-something-
guest:x:1003:1003:Guest:/home/guest/:/bin/sh

/etc/group

root:x:0:brltty,root
sys:x:3:bin
mem:x:8:
ftp:x:11:
mail:x:12:
log:x:19:
smmsp:x:25:
proc:x:26:polkitd
games:x:50:
lock:x:54:
network:x:90:
floppy:x:94:
scanner:x:96:
power:x:98:
adm:x:999:daemon
wheel:x:998:ash
kmem:x:997:
tty:x:5:brltty
utmp:x:996:
audio:x:995:brltty
disk:x:994:
input:x:993:ash,brltty
kvm:x:992:
lp:x:991:ash
optical:x:990:
render:x:989:
sgx:x:988:
storage:x:987:
uucp:x:986:brltty
video:x:985:sddm,ash
users:x:984:
systemd-journal:x:983:
rfkill:x:982:
bin:x:1:daemon
daemon:x:2:bin
http:x:33:
nobody:x:65534:
dbus:x:81:
systemd-journal-remote:x:981:
systemd-network:x:980:
systemd-oom:x:979:
systemd-resolve:x:978:
systemd-timesync:x:977:
systemd-coredump:x:976:
uuidd:x:68:
locate:x:21:
avahi:x:975:
git:x:974:
polkitd:x:102:
rpc:x:32:
tss:x:973:
realtime:x:972:ash
prelockd:x:971:
memavaild:x:970:
adbusers:x:969:
ntp:x:87:
named:x:40:
colord:x:968:
dnsmasq:x:967:
geoclue:x:966:
nm-openconnect:x:965:
nm-openvpn:x:964:
ldap:x:439:
openvpn:x:963:
rtkit:x:133:
sddm:x:962:
usbmux:x:140:
ash:x:1000:
nvidia-persistenced:x:143:
flatpak:x:961:
vboxusers:x:960:ash
vboxsf:x:109:
brlapi:x:959:brltty
brltty:x:958:
gluster:x:957:
-something-
nordvpn:x:955:ash
postgres:x:1002:
guest:x:1003:

there seems to be a postgres group, but no user for it...

It just occurred to me to suggest checking your /etc/sddm.conf or /etc/sddm.d/kde_settings.conf. Even if it contains no insightful information as to why this user appears there, you can at least mitigate the annoyance by adding it after HideUsers=

1 Like

i just tried that, the first config was changed, the second one didn't exist at all, but the changed didn't really work out, and the user is still there, i'm just about to purge everything regarding that PostgreSQL thing if it won't go away