diff -up shadow-4.9/lib/nss.c.shadow-logfd shadow-4.9/lib/nss.c
--- shadow-4.9/lib/nss.c.shadow-logfd	2021-07-22 23:55:35.000000000 +0200
+++ shadow-4.9/lib/nss.c	2025-04-07 15:26:58.957447229 +0200
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@ void nss_init(char *nsswitch_path) {
 	char *line = NULL, *p, *token, *saveptr;
 	size_t len = 0;
 
+	if (shadow_logfd == NULL) {
+		shadow_logfd = stderr;
+	}
+
 	if (atomic_flag_test_and_set(&nss_init_started)) {
 		// Another thread has started nss_init, wait for it to complete
 		while (!atomic_load(&nss_init_completed))