Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Had a peak in /var/log and there is a telnet dir
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:55:12
Message-Id: 53D6640C.5040206@gmail.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] Had a peak in /var/log and there is a telnet dir by Andrew Lowe
1 On 28/07/2014 16:45, Andrew Lowe wrote:
2 > Hi all,
3 > I don't run telnet at all. I don't even have it installed on my machine
4 > yet tonight I had a look in /var/lib to try and find a reason as to why
5 > something else is failing and lo and behold there is a telnet dir.
6 > Having a look inside shows:
7 >
8 > ******************
9 >
10 > bluey telnet # pwd
11 > /var/log/telnet
12 > bluey telnet # ls -la
13 > total 48
14 > drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Jul 2 14:58 .
15 > drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 8192 Jul 28 22:03 ..
16 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 145 Jul 2 14:58 current
17 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 145 May 4 21:07 log-2014-05-12-11:22:05
18 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 372 May 12 19:22 log-2014-05-26-11:54:56
19 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 145 May 26 19:54 log-2014-06-13-04:25:41
20 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 145 Jun 13 12:25 log-2014-06-30-10:39:20
21 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 513 Jun 30 22:09 log-2014-07-02-06:58:34
22 > -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11 Jul 2 14:58 .timestamp
23 > bluey telnet #
24 > bluey telnet # telnet
25 > bash: telnet: command not found
26 >
27 > ******************
28 >
29 > Looking inside one of these files reveals:
30 >
31 > ******************
32 >
33 > bluey telnet # cat log-2014-05-26-11\:54\:56
34 > May 12 19:22:05 [login] pam_unix(login:auth): authentication failure;
35 > logname=LOGIN uid=0 euid=0 tty=/dev/tty1 ruser= rhost= user=root
36 > May 12 19:22:07 [login] FAILED LOGIN (1) on '/dev/tty1' FOR 'root',
37 > Authentication failure
38 > May 12 19:22:15 [login] pam_unix(login:session): session opened for user
39 > root by LOGIN(uid=0)
40 > May 12 19:22:15 [login] ROOT LOGIN on '/dev/tty1'
41 >
42 > ******************
43 >
44 > Sorry for the bad wrapping, each new line starts with "May 12..."
45 >
46 > Does anyone have any ideas as to why there is a telnet dir with
47 > something in it on my machine???? Does anyone know of another app that
48 > might for some bizarre reason, create a telnet dir?????
49 >
50 > Any thoughts, greatly appreciated,
51 >
52 > Andrew
53
54 Files in /var/log are usually created by syslog, and those have the
55 correct format for syslog entries and are using the tag "login". But
56 they are not telnet logins, they are console logins on /dev/tty1. This
57 all looks perfectly normal btw, the are just in a directory with an odd
58 name.
59
60 So, first thing is to check you syslogger's config and see if is
61 configured to add logs with the message "login" to a file in a directory
62 "telnet"[1]. Better, post your scrubbed config here
63
64 If that looks legit, check your logrotate config.
65
66 I wouldn't be assuming an intrusion here,it doesn't have the look or
67 feel of one. I'd be assuming a stoopid config :-)
68
69
70
71 --
72 Alan McKinnon
73 alan.mckinnon@×××××.com