AIX Tip of the Week

Changing the AIX Login Herald

Audience: System Administrators

Date: August 28, 2002

Here are two ways to customize the AIX login prompt.

The first way is to add a "herald" in the default stanza in the /etc/security/login.cfg file as follows

default:
        sak_enabled = false
        logintimes =
        logindisable = 0
        logininterval = 0
        loginreenable = 0
        logindelay = 0
        herald = "Dodgers\r\nID:"

The second method uses the "chsec" command to modify the same file:

chsec -f /etc/security/login.cfg -s default -a herald="Dodgers\r\nID:"

Note: for additional security, I recommend changing the standard Unix "login" prompt to something else like "ID". The "login" prompt almost invariably identifies the system as Unix to hackers.


Bruce Spencer,
baspence@us.ibm.com