Re: [cobalt-users] changing telnet behavior on raq3i

[flash22@xxxxxxx]

On Thu, 15 Mar 2001, Aaron Stein wrote:

> On a raq 3 can anyone tell me how to configure telnet to close an
> inactive session after a specified timeout period? The default behavior
> seems to allow the session to be left open even if one walks away from
> their terminal for hours. This can be especially dangerous if the
> administrator is logged in as root. Shouldn't cobalt consider this a
> security flaw for which a patch is needed?

Telnet to a root shell is such a big security flaw to start with -/

Assuming you use bash, in root's .bash_profile add

export TMOUT=3600

That will log you out in 3600 seconds (1 hr)

gsh

As for a patch, i don't know, some of us are in fact likely to be idle for
a long time in some cases, like monitoring something, I tend to not like
the machine doing things i didn't tell it to, but then, i am in a more or
less physically secure environment...