Bug 39289

Summary: rc.sysinit welcomes system crackers
Product: [Retired] Red Hat Linux Reporter: Landon Curt Noll <redhat-mail>
Component: initscriptsAssignee: Bill Nottingham <notting>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: David Lawrence <dkl>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 7.0CC: dr, leonard-rh-bugzilla, pkoistin, rvokal
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OS: Linux   
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Last Closed: 2004-02-05 15:19:41 UTC Type: ---
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Description Landon Curt Noll 2001-05-06 22:34:56 UTC 
From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.17-14 i686)

Description of problem:
The rc.sysinit script prints "Welcome to Red Hat".

While this may be friendly, it does make problems for folks who charge a
system
cracker with ``breaking and entering'' a system.  This welcome message made
it
a bit harder to press charges because the defense claimed that the system
had welcomed the system cracker.

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.reboot
2.Notice the welcome message
3.
	

Actual Results:  The system welcomed you.

Expected Results:  Perhaps it should say something like, ``This is Red
Hat'' instead?

Additional info:

Try:

*** rc.sysinit.init	Sun May  6 14:49:19 2001
--- rc.sysinit	Sun May  6 14:49:19 2001
***************
*** 34,40 ****
  . /etc/init.d/functions
  
  # Print a banner. ;)
! echo -en "\t\t\tWelcome to "
  [ "$BOOTUP" != "serial" ] && echo -en "\\033[1;31m"
  echo -en "Red Hat"
  [ "$BOOTUP" != "serial" ] && echo -en "\\033[0;39m"
--- 34,40 ----
  . /etc/init.d/functions
  
  # Print a banner. ;)
! echo -en "\t\t\tThis is "
  [ "$BOOTUP" != "serial" ] && echo -en "\\033[1;31m"
  echo -en "Red Hat"
  [ "$BOOTUP" != "serial" ] && echo -en "\\033[0;39m"
Comment 1 Daniel Roesen 2001-05-07 12:55:23 UTC 
Interesting comment. IANAL, but I also heard that.
Comment 2 Alan Cox 2001-05-19 20:22:48 UTC 
I've also heard it - but as an Urban Legend. An actual legal cite would be more
useful
Comment 3 Landon Curt Noll 2001-06-02 07:27:58 UTC 
Speaking personally, there is no legal site.  It never went to trial.

While you may think of it has an urband legend, the welcome
argument issue was raised.  We will never know if the it would
have stood up in court because it never went to trial.

To be in the safe side, we changed all of our systems to not
"Welcome".   It is simple enough to side-step the entire issue,
by changing the welcome to a simple "This is Redhat" or
"RedHat 7.x starting" or "Powered by RedHat" or "RedHat 7.x"
or something ...
Comment 4 Karl O. Pinc 2002-07-10 15:37:00 UTC 
So, make the welcome messsage configurable.

"Welcome to Redhat, unless you're a cracker or a lawyer."
Comment 5 Leonard den Ottolander 2004-02-05 12:34:04 UTC 
This bug report is nonsense and should be closed NOTABUG, or WONTFIX
at worst.

If I have a doormat that says "Welcome" I do not invite burglars into
my house. This is an obvious fact even if a lawyer might state (not
think/believe) otherwise.