Locking the screen from login terminal
 

So I've got this home file server, and I want to display certain stuff using:

top
who
a tcpdump of snort logs, scrolling in real time

I want it to display on the screen using a split terminal screen, so all of the information shows on one display, but I do not want it to be vulnerable to a local attacker. Is there any way I can have these things start up at login, but prevent that user from doing anything other than viewing this information?

I'm thinking maybe a chroot jail? Any ideas?

Do you mean like, when you login, the terminal shows up and tells you what you want to know? If you wanted you could set that up pretty easily by editing /etc/bash.bashrc and at the bottom of the file just type in the commands you want and it'll run those once you open up a terminal.

And if you wanted you could set up a terminal to open automatically when you log in, that can be arranged as well. Then you can just lock the screen like normal.