diff --git a/Doc/library/spwd.rst b/Doc/library/spwd.rst
--- a/Doc/library/spwd.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/spwd.rst
@@ -49,16 +49,18 @@ The sp_namp and sp_pwdp items are string
 
 The following functions are defined:
 
 
 .. function:: getspnam(name)
 
    Return the shadow password database entry for the given user name.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
+      Raised a :exc:`PermissionError` if user doesn't have enough privileges.
 
 .. function:: getspall()
 
    Return a list of all available shadow password database entries, in arbitrary
    order.
 
 
 .. seealso::
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_spwd.py b/Lib/test/test_spwd.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_spwd.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_spwd.py
@@ -51,10 +51,20 @@ class TestSpwdRoot(unittest.TestCase):
         try:
             bytes_name = os.fsencode(random_name)
         except UnicodeEncodeError:
             pass
         else:
             self.assertRaises(TypeError, spwd.getspnam, bytes_name)
 
 
+@unittest.skipUnless(hasattr(os, 'geteuid') and os.geteuid() != 0,
+                     'non-root user required')
+class TestSpwdNonRoot(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_getspnam_exception(self):
+        with self.assertRaises(PermissionError) as cm:
+            spwd.getspnam('bin')
+        self.assertEqual(str(cm.exception), '[Errno 13] Permission denied')
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()
diff --git a/Modules/spwdmodule.c b/Modules/spwdmodule.c
--- a/Modules/spwdmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/spwdmodule.c
@@ -132,17 +132,20 @@ spwd_getspnam_impl(PyModuleDef *module, 
     struct spwd *p;
     PyObject *bytes, *retval = NULL;
 
     if ((bytes = PyUnicode_EncodeFSDefault(arg)) == NULL)
         return NULL;
     if (PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(bytes, &name, NULL) == -1)
         goto out;
     if ((p = getspnam(name)) == NULL) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_KeyError, "getspnam(): name not found");
+        if (errno != 0)
+            PyErr_SetFromErrno(PyExc_OSError);
+        else
+            PyErr_SetString(PyExc_KeyError, "getspnam(): name not found");
         goto out;
     }
     retval = mkspent(p);
 out:
     Py_DECREF(bytes);
     return retval;
 }