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Old 04-14-2014, 12:12 AM   #1
_mz
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Security information alert - where it comes from?


Hi Guys,

I received this alert. Actually fwded by my colleague as he is not supposed to receive this alert. He asked me to check.

-------------
From: test@abc.com
To: root@abc.com,
Date: 11.04.2014 04:33
Subject: *** SECURITY information for server1 ***

server1 : Apr 11 10:33:19 : test : user NOT in sudoers ; TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/test ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/su -
-------------

Checked on /etc/syslog.conf and crontab - there were no settings. Could you guys please assist where else should I check? I need to disable this.
 
Old 04-14-2014, 01:02 AM   #2
unSpawn
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The message literally reads "user not in sudoers" so this is about a command run with Sudo. Check its files, crontab and shell history around the time of the email. On a side note one really shouldn't create a user for testing named "test" as any arbitrarily named unprivileged user account can be used for testing and brute forcing accounts always try "test". Nine out of ten times "user test" will also have an easy to guess password, lack access restrictions and such.
 
Old 04-14-2014, 01:18 AM   #3
Madhu Desai
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What this means is, the user test (test@abc) tried to become root user by issuing command 'sudo su -'. As the user test is not mentioned /etc/sudoers file, the incident is reported in /var/log/secure (Redhat) or i think its /var/log/faillog in other distros.
 
Old 04-14-2014, 02:29 AM   #4
_mz
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unSpawn, to be clear, actually 'from' and 'to' are like this:

From: sysadm@mydomain
To: root@mydomain,

I have checked on sysadm's crontab - no crontabs for this user

mddesai, you are correct. The log is captured in /var/log/messages. I am running on SLES 11.1 so /var/log/secure is empty. I checked on /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf as well but did not see any MAILTO, '@' thingy or something like an email syntax.
 
Old 04-14-2014, 01:03 PM   #5
unSpawn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by _mz View Post
I have checked on sysadm's crontab - no crontabs for this user
I thought I wrote "Check its files, crontab and shell history around the time of the email."?
 
  


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