automounter problems

automounter starts and does not complain
access to any filesystems managed by the automounter fails
lsof on the automount process shows /usr/lib64/autofs/lookup_program.so opened

/usr/sbin/automount -f -d shows the following when access from another terminal is attempted:

attempting to mount entry /cenas1/home
lookup_mount: lookup(program): looking up home
lookup(program): lookup for home failed


solution: /etc/auto.master and /etc/auto.map cannot have execute permissions