RE: corrupt /var/run/utmp - telnet/rlogin

[Johnny Vergeer]

Title: corrupt /var/run/utmp - telnet/rlogin

Hello again,

 

For what it is worth, RedHat 7.1 does not display this behavior, but 7.2 (and 7.3) do ...

 

Regards

Johnny

-----Original Message-----
From: Johnny Vergeer
Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 9:27 am
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Abdul Aziz Tyer; Jacques de Waal
Subject: corrupt /var/run/utmp - telnet/rlogin

Hello

I have the following problem on Redhat Linux 7.3. Using console login, telnet and rlogin seems to corrupt the /var/run/utmp file. This results in incorrect information supplied by "w", finger etc. This problem does not happen when using ssh, to connect to the system.

The session below shows a repeatable scenario:

==> Two telnet session are connected (w, last and utmp are fine ...)
[branch@relinux branch]$ w
  9:05am  up 5 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.00
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
branch   pts/1    jvergeer          9:05am  0.00s  0.03s  0.00s  w
branch   pts/0    jvergeer          9:04am 31.00s  0.01s  0.01s  -bash

[branch@relinux branch]$ last | grep still
branch   pts/1        jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:05   still logged in  
branch   pts/0        jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:04   still logged in  

[branch@relinux branch]$ last -f /var/run/utmp
branch   pts/0        jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:04   still logged in  
branch   pts/1        jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:05   still logged in  
reboot   system boot                   Tue Oct  8 08:59          (00:05)   

utmp begins Tue Oct  8 08:59:38 2002

==> Now we login on the console ...

[branch@relinux branch]$ w
  9:05am  up 6 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.08, 0.04, 0.01
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
branch   tty1     jvergeer          9:05am  4.00s  0.02s  0.02s  -bash
branch   pts/0    jvergeer          9:04am  1:11   0.01s  0.01s  -bash

==> pts/1 is "lost" although the telnet session is still active

[branch@relinux branch]$ last | grep still
branch   tty1         jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:05   still logged in  
branch   pts/1        jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:05   still logged in  
branch   pts/0        jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:04   still logged in  

==> "last" has the correct information, but utmp has been broken

[branch@relinux branch]$ last -f /var/run/utmp
branch   pts/0        jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:04   still logged in  
branch   tty1         jvergeer         Tue Oct  8 09:05   still logged in  
reboot   system boot                   Tue Oct  8 08:59          (00:06)   

utmp begins Tue Oct  8 08:59:38 2002
[branch@relinux branch]$

This happens with a standard RH 7.3 "server" build. I have applied all the updates for 7.3 and installed the 2.4.18-10 kernel. No luck ...

Has anyone else seen this problem ? Is there a work around (apart from using ssh) ?

Thanx for any pointers !
Regards
Johnny Vergeer

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