diff --git a/transfer_service/system_utils.py b/transfer_service/system_utils.py
index d82bd86ba44283fea3fbf0456ed9ce3ddd8a1a6d..ac2aacf9b650fa2deccf9279eb798a574d7ad38e 100644
--- a/transfer_service/system_utils.py
+++ b/transfer_service/system_utils.py
@@ -6,20 +6,21 @@
 #
 
 import os
+import pwd
 import re
 import shutil
 import sys
 
 
 class SystemUtils(object):
-    
+
     UNITS = {
                 "B": 1,
                 "KB": 1 << 10,
                 "MB": 1 << 20,
                 "GB": 1 << 30,
                 "TB": 1 << 40,
-                "PB": 1 << 50,                
+                "PB": 1 << 50,
             }
 
     def __init__(self):
@@ -27,24 +28,15 @@ class SystemUtils(object):
 
     def userInfo(self, username):
         """
-        Parses '/etc/passwd' and returns user, uid and gid associated to
-        a given username.
+        Returns username, UID and GID associated to a given user,
+        using the Python password database module (pwd).
         """
         try:
-            fp = open("/etc/passwd", 'r')
-        except FileNotFoundError:
-            raise
-        else:
-            for line in fp:
-                info = line.split(':')
-                user = info[0]
-                uid = int(info[2])
-                gid = int(info[3])
-                if user == username:
-                    fp.close()
-                    return [ user, uid, gid ]
-            fp.close()
+            info = pwd.getpwnam(username)
+        except KeyError:
             return False
+        else:
+            return [ info[0], info[2], info[3] ]
 
     def findIllegalCharacters(self, name):
         """Checks for file/dir names containing illegal characters."""
@@ -53,7 +45,7 @@ class SystemUtils(object):
             return True
         else:
             return False
-        
+
     def findInvalidFileAndDirNames(self, path):
         """
         Scans 'path' recursively to search for file/dir names with
@@ -108,7 +100,7 @@ class SystemUtils(object):
                 # do nothing...
                 pass
         return [ dirList, fileList ]
-    
+
     def getSize(self, path):
         """
         If 'path' is a file returns the file size in bytes,
@@ -118,7 +110,7 @@ class SystemUtils(object):
         size = 0
         if os.path.isfile(path) and not os.path.islink(path):
             size = os.path.getsize(path)
-        elif os.path.isdir(path) and not os.path.islink(path):            
+        elif os.path.isdir(path) and not os.path.islink(path):
             for folder, subfolders, files in os.walk(path, topdown = True):
                 cwd = os.path.basename(folder)
                 parent = os.path.dirname(folder)