With a krb5.conf looking like this: [libdefaults] default_realm = ACME.COM [realms] ACME.COM = { kdc = pop.czech.sun.com admin_server = pop.czech.sun.com [domain_realm] .com = ACME.COM [logging] kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmin.log default = FILE:/var/log/krb5lib.log I see this: mit# /usr/local/sbin/kdb5_util dump zsh: segmentation fault (core dumped) /usr/local/sbin/kdb5_util dump mit# mdb ./core Loading modules: [ libc.so.1 ld.so.1 ] > $C 08047cdc libc.so.1`strlen+0x30(805975e, 8047d28, 806bf40, 0) 08047d18 libc.so.1`fprintf+0x9f(806bf40, 805975c, 0, fee862c4, 0, 96c73a88) 08047d58 extended_com_err_fn+0x3e(0, 96c73a88, 805a2fc, 8047dbc) 08047d88 libcom_err.so.3.0`com_err_va+0xbf(0, 96c73a88, 805a2fc, 8047dbc) 08047da8 libcom_err.so.3.0`com_err+0x23(0, 96c73a88, 805a2fc, 806c7d8, fef20d68, feaf0b38) 08047e3c main+0x3fb(2, 8047e68, 8047e74) 08047e5c _start+0x80(2, 8047f14, 8047f2e, 0, 8047f33, 8047f4f) > The root cause is that "progname" is being used before it is initialized: from kdb5_util.c: ... retval = kadm5_init_krb5_context(&util_context); if (retval) { com_err (progname, retval, "while initializing Kerberos code"); exit(1); } /* initialize_adb_error_table(); */ progname = (strrchr(argv[0], '/') ? strrchr(argv[0], '/')+1 : argv[0]); progname should be initialized before it can be used by com_err(). An identical problem exists for krb5_ldap_util. See attached tarball for diffs.