crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

user doesn't exist

Error message

user doesn't exist

What it means

Sentinel error database.UserNotExists, returned when a lookup by machine ID or password validation finds no such user in the database; the API maps it to 403 on login and alert queries treat it as 'no owner' rather than a hard failure.

Source

Thrown at pkg/database/errors.go:7

package database

import "errors"

var (
	UserExists        = errors.New("user already exist")
	UserNotExists     = errors.New("user doesn't exist")
	HashError         = errors.New("unable to hash")
	InsertFail        = errors.New("unable to insert row")
	QueryFail         = errors.New("unable to query")
	UpdateFail        = errors.New("unable to update")
	DeleteFail        = errors.New("unable to delete")
	ItemNotFound      = errors.New("object not found")
	ParseTimeFail     = errors.New("unable to parse time")
	ParseDurationFail = errors.New("unable to parse duration")
	MarshalFail       = errors.New("unable to serialize")
	BulkError         = errors.New("unable to insert bulk")
	ParseType         = errors.New("unable to parse type")
	InvalidIPOrRange  = errors.New("invalid ip address / range")
	InvalidFilter     = errors.New("invalid filter")
)

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Register the machine before referencing it (cscli machines register or LAPI enrollment)
2. Check for typos in the machine ID and that it wasn't deleted

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at pkg/database/errors.go:7 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/83bceff05a103d55. Report an issue: GitHub.