SLES server won't log login information by default

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

Situation

On a SLES11SP1 server (fully patched), successful user logins are not recorded by default, failed login attempts are.

Resolution

There are several ways to fix this, here are a couple of them (this is not an exhaustive list):

1. Install auditd.

    If you install auditd, by default it will log login information to /var/log/audit/audit.log.

    NOTE: If you install auditd, it doesn't enable logging by default, you must use the command 'auditctl -e1' each time you restart the server or auditd, or you can put the '-e1' in the /etc/audit/audit.rules file and it will be persistent across boots.

2. Configure pam to log authentication information:

    If you edit the /etc/pam.d/common-sessions file, and add 'session required pam_warn.so' at the bottom, this will send authentication information to the /var/log/messages file.

Note: If you are using NetIQ Sentinel, there is a script included (wtmpsetup) in the SLES Collector Pack which will monitor the wtmp and btmp files for logins and generate a suslog message to record the activity.

Cause

By default there is nothing implemented to log or audit authentication information (logins).

Disclaimer

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