How to Set Up a Custom Banner Message in Your Ubuntu Linux Machine for Remote Users

This how-to will enable you to setup a custom banner message to users who read your Banner Message and decide to enter your System at their own risk, else be warned about not trying to log in.

We will be first editing a file called issue.net. This is where we will be typing our custom Banner Message. Then we will be editing the SSH_config file to point to this file. Once that is done, we can restart the SSH Daemon process for things to work.

EditSteps

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    Sudo to root
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    Type vim /etc/issue.net
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    You will get a screen similar to the one shown
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    Next just below the lines of Debian 6.0, I am using Debian, the same applies for Ubuntu - Type any custom message you feel, I usually would use something like this.
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    The issue.net file should now look as shown
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    Now exit out of this file by saving the changes by typing EscKey + !wq
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    Now let us make SSH understand that we need to enable the Banner Message.
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    To do this, we issue the command, vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
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    Now in the sshd_config file, we need to uncomment the Banner portion as shown
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    Now issue the command --> /etc/init.d/ssh restart
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    This will restart the OpenSSH Server Daemon process
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    After this is done, we can test it by issuing a test login via
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    localhost by issuing the following command ssh localhost
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    Type yes to connect
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    Now you will get our Banner message
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    - Congratulations! You have successfully setup a Banner for your Linux System!

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