Error: "Cannot set process environment" when logging on AIX (4295828)

Running the command su - <username> and receiving error "Cannot set process environment"

The problem is with permissions along the login procedure. A file or directory, which has to be accessed during the login, does not have "Read" set for the users.

The following files are part of the login process:

/etc
/etc/environment
/etc/passwd
/etc/groups
/etc/profile

The root directory should be checked for correct permissions. Generally it will need 755 permissions ("chmod a+rx /") to allow users other than root to login to the system.
 

This error can also indicate that the users shell is not correct.