Preamble

When logging into a Linux system over ssh you can greeted with a text banner prior to entering your password. There are a number of reasons you might want to do this.

• adding company branding
• providing a brief description about how this system is being used
• providing warnings and reminders to users about access

How To

Log into your system over ssh or get local terminal access.

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Down near the bottom you will be able to set the Banner path. Here I have pointed it away from the default /etc/issue.net and towards a new file that I am going to create, /etc/issue_custom.net.

# no default banner path
Banner /etc/issue_custom.net

Now we can edit our banner file to add whatever we want to greet people with, be it instructions, company branding or whatever.

sudo nano /etc/issue_custom.net

You might want to be a cool kid and add some custom ASCII art to your banner. Checkout ASCII Art Generator.

Hey you!

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