While uid_t and gid_t are both unsigned, the values (uid_t) -1 and (gid_t) -1 are reserved. A uid or gid argument of -1 to the chown(2) system call means to leave the uid/gid unchanged. Catch this case so that trying to set a uid or gid to -1 will result in an error. Test cases: chown 4294967295 file chown :4294967295 file chgrp 4294967295 file Andreas Gruenbacher Index: lib/userspec.c =================================================================== --- lib/userspec.c.orig 2010-05-04 17:27:48.479359439 +0200 +++ lib/userspec.c 2010-05-04 17:29:12.439359267 +0200 @@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ parse_with_separator (char const *spec, { unsigned long int tmp; if (xstrtoul (u, NULL, 10, &tmp, "") == LONGINT_OK - && tmp <= MAXUID) + && tmp <= MAXUID && tmp != (uid_t) -1) unum = tmp; else error_msg = E_invalid_user; @@ -200,7 +200,8 @@ parse_with_separator (char const *spec, if (grp == NULL) { unsigned long int tmp; - if (xstrtoul (g, NULL, 10, &tmp, "") == LONGINT_OK && tmp <= MAXGID) + if (xstrtoul (g, NULL, 10, &tmp, "") == LONGINT_OK && tmp <= MAXGID + && tmp != (gid_t) -1) gnum = tmp; else error_msg = E_invalid_group; Index: src/chgrp.c =================================================================== --- src/chgrp.c.orig 2010-05-04 17:27:48.479359439 +0200 +++ src/chgrp.c 2010-05-04 17:29:12.443359269 +0200 @@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ parse_group (const char *name) { unsigned long int tmp; if (! (xstrtoul (name, NULL, 10, &tmp, "") == LONGINT_OK - && tmp <= GID_T_MAX)) + && tmp <= GID_T_MAX && tmp != (gid_t) -1)) error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0, _("invalid group: %s"), quote (name)); gid = tmp; }