diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/permission-denied-spwd-module.yml b/changelogs/fragments/permission-denied-spwd-module.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..437df4bc2ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/permission-denied-spwd-module.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - user - Fix error "Permission denied" in user module while generating SSH keys (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/78017).
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/user.py b/lib/ansible/modules/user.py
index b247ba3682e..3e35e90facd 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/user.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/user.py
@@ -1052,7 +1052,17 @@ class User(object):
         max_needs_change = self.password_expire_max is not None
 
         if HAVE_SPWD:
-            shadow_info = spwd.getspnam(self.name)
+            try:
+                shadow_info = spwd.getspnam(self.name)
+            except KeyError:
+                return None, '', ''
+            except OSError as e:
+                # Python 3.6 raises PermissionError instead of KeyError
+                # Due to absence of PermissionError in python2.7 need to check
+                # errno
+                if e.errno in (errno.EACCES, errno.EPERM, errno.ENOENT):
+                    return None, '', ''
+                raise
             min_needs_change &= self.password_expire_min != shadow_info.sp_min
             max_needs_change &= self.password_expire_max != shadow_info.sp_max