Aide fails silently

Binary package hint: aide

Error Description
==========

After installing Aide, running "sudo /etc/cron.daily/aide" results in the following error:

    dotlockfile: /var/run/aide: no such directory

This is a problem described in Bug 114730. After creating the missing /var/run/aide directory, running the previously described command results in what appears to be normal program execution, then termination. But the following /var/log/aide/aide.log results tell a different story:

<Begin log text>
aide run on <hostname deleted> started at 2007-10-14 17:09:57.
******************************************************************************
* AIDE returned with exit code 17. Invalid configuration! *
******************************************************************************
AIDE error output (3 lines):
34:syntax error:(
34:Error while reading configuration:(
Configuration error
End of AIDE error output
funny, AIDE did not leave a log.
The check was done against /var/lib/aide/aide.db with the following characteristics:
  Mtime : 2007-10-14 16:38:37
  Ctime : 2007-10-14 16:38:37
  Inode : 8487540

The AIDE run created a new database /var/lib/aide/aide.db.new with the following characteristics:
End of AIDE daily cron job at at 2007-10-14 17:09, run time 0 seconds
<End log text>

Running "sudo aide -D -c /var/lib/aide/aide.conf.autogenerated results in a similar, but more sparse message:

<Begin error message>
34:syntax error:(
34:Error while reading configuration:(
Configuration error
<End error message>

Steps to reproduce
============

1. Install Gutsy RC amd64 on a Dell Inspiron 1420 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7500/2.2GHz)
2. Install Aide

Aide version
========

0.13.1-7

Additional Information
=============

This is not reproducible on Gutsy RC i386 installed on a Dell Inspiron 600m (Intel Pentium M 2.0GHz. The /var/run/aide directory is absent on this machine also, but does not appear to cause any problems, as aide runs and reports (email) correctly.

I am not sure if this is a security vulnerability, and will therefore not mark it as one.