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What's in Your Issue File?

Posted by Cliff on from the the-not-so-welcome-mats-of-the-21st-century dept.

Tony Shepps asks: "A recent story about security kept this question in my mind: what should one really put in the /etc/issue file, for those systems that permit telnet? I know that logins that say "welcome" are a bad idea, but is it necessary to have a ton of legalese there? How about company name? System name? Is one type of login more (or less) attractive to crackers? Does anyone have anything lighthearted or funny there?" How about sweet ANSI banner? Or the proper legalese and disclaimers take away from the intended effect?

1 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Some things.. by Jason+W · · Score: 3
    If your company requires legal stuff, of course you should put it in /etc/issue. Unless it only pertains to logged in users, in which case you can just add it to the logon message (adding an echo in /etc/profile works well for bash).

    Some other things to stay away from are:

    • Displaying OS/Distro/Kernel version. This only encourages crackers and gives them a place to start. There are other ways to obtain that info, though (HTTP/Port scanning)
    • Hardware info. If a cracker sees a sweet machine, he/she will try harder to get access.
    • Network info/topology. "We are hooked into the local T3 network in the CS department at Foobar U in Cambridge, UK". Gives crackers a place to start (once again, this info can be obtained elsewhere)
    • Advertisements. No one wants to see ads
    • Bragging about the machine's security.

    Some things you should have:

    • A system name. 'mail' or 'web' is fine, but everyone loves characters from books, films, ect.
    • System status notes. A "We were down last night from 8-12" is a nice notice to have for regular users. Just don't let it get outdated
    • Humor. Funny is good. ASCII art the size of an xterm window is not.