%Error opening nvram:/startup-config (Permission denied)

Question

I'm getting an odd error, permission denied trying to issue "show config" at user level.  We use this throughout the environment with no issues.
IOS: System image file is "flash0:c2900-universalk9-mz.SPA.152-3.T.bin"
R1#sh run | i aaa
aaa new-model
aaa authentication login default group tacacs+ local
aaa authorization exec default group tacacs+ if-authenticated
aaa authorization commands 1 default group tacacs+ if-authenticated
aaa authorization commands 15 default group tacacs+ if-authenticated
aaa accounting commands 15 default stop-only group tacacs+
aaa session-id common
R1#sh run | i priv
privilege exec level 1 traceroute
privilege exec level 1 ping
privilege exec level 1 show logging
privilege exec level 1 show configuration
privilege exec level 1 show privilege
privilege exec level 1 show
R1#disable
R1>show config
Using 11855 out of 262136 bytes
%Error opening nvram:/startup-config (Permission denied)

Answer 1

You are indeed allowed to run the command (as evidenced by the fact that the command did run).
show config is effectively an alias for the command more nvram:startup-config
As a result, the issue is the permission on the file, not the command itself.
Unfortunately, the file systems do not explicitly support permissions.  This used to be implicitly supported through permissions on show config.
Perhaps this is a bug.  I'd open a case on this if you need really need this feature.