Mastering Linux Security and Hardening - Second Edition

Using the issue file

The issue file, also found in the /etc directory, shows a message on the local terminal, just above the login prompt. A default issue file would just contain macro code that would show information about the machine. Here's an example from an Ubuntu machine:

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS \n \l

Or, on a Red Hat/CentOS machine, it would look like this:

\SKernel \r on an \m

On an Ubuntu machine, the banner would look something like this:

On a CentOS machine, it would look something like this:

You could put a security message in the issue ...