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 --- src/chgrp.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) Index: src/chgrp.c =================================================================== --- src/chgrp.c.orig 2014-01-03 18:18:24.257902746 +0100 +++ src/chgrp.c 2014-01-03 19:47:23.019440368 +0100 @@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ 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 && (gid_t) tmp != (gid_t) -1)) error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0, _("invalid group: %s"), quote (name)); gid = tmp; }