Remove “This incident will be reported.” from user warnings

Post by hutzlibu » Sat, Apr 29, 2023, 8:00 PM UTC

hoodmane wrote: post #77

Buttons840 wrote: post #46

Can someone share even one story where sudo reporting these "incidents" was helpful? This feature seems to come from a world where elite hackers simply repeat the same sudo command over and over hoping it will eventually work.

Yes. More or less the first time I used Linux was on a fedora workstation at my desk at MIT. The very nice sysadmin down the hall sent me an email just a bit later saying "We see you were trying to install x program. We installed it for you." I understand that this is a very rare experience but the first time I saw that message, a helpful person was actually looking at these reports.

Post by alexb_ » Sat, Apr 29, 2023, 8:04 PM UTC

kragen wrote: post #68

john_shafthair wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems pretty stupid. While they're at it, why not update the SSH warning banner with a list of what we do and don't log on this system. As a courtesy to their adversary. This sudo message has been the same since the dawn of time. There is literally no reason to correct it. This is the one place you don't want to be pedantic, leaking security configuration via stderr.

something like 99% of computers with sudo installed are single-user machines where the only effect of the warning is to scare people and it's only been the same since people started to switch to sudo in the late 90s; su never printed such a warning

Post by nailer » Sat, Apr 29, 2023, 8:06 PM UTC

abnry wrote: post #87

Funny story. When I was in grad school, the math department office I was in had Linux computers administrated by the department. One day I was goofing in my shared office with a fellow grad student by playing with what resources were available. We were trying sudo and failed with enough silly passwords that we got the "this incident will be reported" message. I confidently told my officemate that these messages were…

Post by deusum » Sat, Apr 29, 2023, 8:19 PM UTC

nailer wrote: post #115

abnry wrote: post #87

Funny story. When I was in grad school, the math department office I was in had Linux computers administrated by the department. One day I was goofing in my shared office with a fellow grad student by playing with what resources were available. We were trying sudo and failed with enough silly passwords that we got the "this incident will be reported" message. I confidently told my officemate that these messages were…

To be fair in 2023, a lot of people are building LLMs and starting with downloading the internet.

Post by kibwen » Sat, Apr 29, 2023, 8:22 PM UTC

alexb_ wrote: post #113

kragen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something like 99% of computers with sudo installed are single-user machines where the only effect of the warning is to scare people and it's only been the same since people started to switch to sudo in the late 90s; su never printed such a warning

>the only effect of the warning is to scare people Good. If you're not familiar with what sudo does, then you shouldn't be using it in the first place.