The server’s hostname is currently owned by the user “nobody”

[Lor]

I received the message by email:

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The server’s hostname “server.domain.com” is currently owned by the user “nobody”. A user should not own the hostname because this will compromise the integrity and security of the system.

    You can resolve this conflict by doing one of the following:
    • Set a new hostname for the server at https://server.domain.com:2087/scripts2/changehostname.
    • Set a new hostname for the server with the following command: ” .
    • Remove the domain “server.domain.com” from the user “nobody”.
    ◦ Log in to cPanel at https://server.domain.com:2083/.
    ◦ Remove the domain from all areas in the “Domains” section.


    If you do not change your server’s hostname, your server may experience problems with mail, internal cPanel scripts, and other important services.

    The system generated this notice on Friday, October 14, 2016 at 9:13:03 AM UTC.

    “Hostname conflicts with a cPanel user account” notifications are currently configured to have an importance of “High”. You can change the importance or disable this
    type of notification in WHM’s Contact Manager at: https://server.domain.com:2087/scripts2/editcontact?event=Check::HostnameOwnedByUser

    Do not reply to this automated message.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did not clearly understand what I have to do? I don't want to change the server name.
Please help.
Thank you.

 

[cPanelMichael]

I did not clearly understand what I have to do? I don't want to change the server name.

Hello @Lor,

It's acceptable to configure your hostname with a domain name that's a cPanel account, but it needs to be a subdomain that's not associated with an account (e.g. server.domain.tld). Could you let us know the specific concerns you have regarding the hostname change? Documentation on changing the hostname is available at:

Change Hostname - Documentation - cPanel Documentation

Thank you.

 

[Lor]

Could you let us know the specific concerns you have regarding the hostname change?

Because server hostname showed in email header I don't want any pain from paranoid ISP "anti-spam" departments.

Could you please advice me how to fix it without change the host name.

 

[stilfx]

Same exact question here.. please advice us how to fix it without changing the host name.

 

[RWH Tech]

+1 on this issue and I'm sure it's due to this workaround DKIM for main server hostname
The odd thing is that /var/cpanel/users/nobody is empty since I removed the entry according to the workaround.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Because server hostname showed in email header I don't want any pain from paranoid ISP "anti-spam" departments.

Could you please advice me how to fix it without change the host name.

Hello,

You could browse to "WHM >> Contact Manager" and change the notification preference for "Hostname conflicts with a cPanel user account" and "Invalid Hostname For Main IP Address", however the use of an unsupported hostname can result in several configuration problems on the server. Could you let us know if the following thread helps address the SPAM reputation concerns?

How to script /etc/mailhelo to always match reverse DNS

Thank you.

 

[Rich Badaracco]

I don't know if this answered the original poster's question but it certainly didn't answer mine. The message indicates that the currently set hostname is assigned to the user nobody. This is done by WHM by default. Setting a new hostname for the server will only set the new hostname owned by the user nobody. There is no place in WHM as far as I can tell to assign the hostname to a user. I have found links on google that talk about editing /var/cpanel/userdata/nobody but they don't go into detail about what changes to make. That folder currently has files for each IP, cache, main, and the server name. Inside the files there are numerous line referencing the user and group nobody. Do the entries referencing nobody get changed to a user? If so which one? Root, a valid cpanel account, something else?Can somebody please provide some explicit, step by step instructions on how to assign the current hostname to the correct user or remove the ownership of the hostname to resolve the message in the email. BTW, one of the methods to resolve this described in the email is to log into the cpanel account for the server name Log in to cPanel at hostname.domain.com:2083 and remove Remove the domain from all areas in the “Domains” section. Since this is not a cpanel account how exactly do I do that. I tried using the root id/pw and the id nobody with the root pw and that was not valid.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello,

It looks like this is bug that relates to the creation of /var/cpanel/users/system. Internal case CPANEL-9491 is open to address an issue where the server's hostname becomes associated with the "nobody" user, leading to the following error message:

# /scripts/updateuserdomains
== WORKAROUND ENABLED ==
Serious Problem – This should never happen!!
The hostname (server.domain.tld) is owned by the user nobody
== WORKAROUND ENABLED ==

The temporary workaround at this time is to edit the /var/cpanel/users/system file to ensure no entries for the hostname exists, and then run the following command:

/scripts/updateuserdomains

Note that generally the /var/cpanel/users/system is used to determine DNS zone ownership for zones not associated with a cPanel account.

I'll update this thread with more information on the status of this case as it becomes available.

Thank you.