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

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

#81

Post by mr_mitm »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #71
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

Reminds me of when I was younger and my mom and my brother were using a windows computer. They got the message “an illegal error has occurred” and my mom called me to ask if they had broken the law.

When I was young I had messed with the computer and it showed an english message with the word "atom" in it. My mom not being a native speaker freaked out as if a nuclear explosion was about to take place.

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

#82

Post by discreditable »

john_shafthair wrote: post #63
forgotusername6 wrote: post #54

So according to the comments it isn't actually gone, just the wording updated and now dependent on if you have actually set up the mailer to report it somewhere https://github.com/sudo-project/sudo/commit/9757d29a24ac1872...

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.

Warning banners are not uncommon. https://www.stigviewer.com/stig/red_hat_enterprise_linux_8/2...

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

#86

Post by Arch485 »

john_shafthair wrote: post #78
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

[flagged]

I don't really think this is a security issue. If an attacker is able to try executing sudo on your system, you have much bigger problems (for example, data exfil can be done by non-sudo users in many cases, or if your system is sufficiently old there's known priviledge escalation exploits). I don't think an attacker gains much knowledge from knowing whether or not they're on the naughty list.

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

#87

Post by abnry »

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 never saved and recorded.

A few moments later, from our open office door (which I assume meant all our conversation was able to be overheard), our IT lady from down the hall came in and said to me "Download the internet, really?"

Because yes, I did type, while not saying I was doing so, "sudo DOWNLOAD THE INTERNET" into the terminal while goofing.

Funny story but I did feel a bit embarrassed at the time.

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

#88

Post by usr1106 »

ibic wrote: post #50

As it happens - "The warning was restored in a slightly altered form in 9757d29" ( https://github.com/sudo-project/sudo/commit/9757d29a24ac1872... ) - Millert.

That makes senses. I already wanted to comment that showing an false warning is not good. But silently sending a mail of what you tried to do is worse.

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

#90

Post by glhaynes »

bqmjjx0kac wrote: post #25
its-summertime wrote: post #11

Stressful message to see back when I was a clueless child. I'm glad its getting removed.

I had a similar reaction to Windows 95's "An illegal operation has occurred." I remember wondering whether the police were on their way.

I got my first computer when I was about 6. It would boot to BASIC if there wasn't a floppy disk inserted. I typed something random and got back "SYNTAX ERROR". I wasn't old enough to know what either sin or taxes were, but my impression was they were both real bad.
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