diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c354c02f..ba1f4242 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 - Fix a locking issue with concurrent read/writes for node status. #1174
 - Fix shim and grub detection for aarch64. #1145
 - wwctl [profile|node] list -a handles now slices correclty. #1113
+- Fix parsing of /etc/group during syncuser. #1202
 
 ## 4.5.0, 2024-02-08
 
diff --git a/internal/pkg/container/syncuids.go b/internal/pkg/container/syncuids.go
index 89291c79..c9e9d701 100644
--- a/internal/pkg/container/syncuids.go
+++ b/internal/pkg/container/syncuids.go
@@ -166,8 +166,8 @@ func (db syncDB) read(fileName string, fromContainer bool) error {
 		for fileScanner.Scan() {
 			line := fileScanner.Text()
 			fields := strings.Split(line, ":")
-			if len(fields) != 7 {
-				wwlog.Debug("malformed line in passwd: %s", line)
+			if len(fields) != 7 && len(fields) != 4 {
+				wwlog.Debug("malformed line in passwd/group: %s", line)
 				continue
 			}
 			name := fields[0]