---
name: "noshell"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "noshell"
version: "4.0.11-4"
release: "Debian 5.0 (Lenny)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/noshell"
---

# noshell(1)

shell for administrative users that should never log in

## NAME

noshell — shell for administrative users that should never log in

## DESCRIPTION

**noshell** is a shell that can be   used for system users which need to be active but should never be  used to log in to the system. **noshell** monitors  attempts to access disabled accounts and logs this into syslog.

If a user attempts to connect to the system through an   administrative user that has a valid password the connection will  be terminated and the user will be unable to gain access to the   host.

After connecting the login program might display the timestamp  of the last loging. For example, in a remote connection:

hostileuser@hostile\_host% ssh -l adminuser remote\_host

adminuser@remote\_host's password: \*\*\*\*\*\*\*

(System's /etc/motd)

Last login: Sat Nov 22 23:30:41 2003 from localhost

Connection to remote\_host closed.

If the user is denied access, **noshell** will  send a message to **syslog** using the LOG\_AUTH  facility. It does not provide any indication of wether this connection  attempt was local or remote, this information must be retrieved by  other systems. In the above example the following would   get recorded in **/var/log/authlog**:

Nov 22 23:30:41 remote\_host sshd\[9950\]: Accepted password for adinuser from hostile\_host port 44422 ssh2

Nov 22 23:30:41 remote\_host ssh(pam\_unix)\[9952\]: session opened for user adminuser by (uid=1)

Nov 22 23:30:41 remote\_host noshell\[9953\]: Noshell warning: user adminuser login from a disabled shell

Nov 22 23:30:41 remote\_host ssh(pam\_unix)\[9952\]: session closed for user adminuser

## OPTIONS

This program does not use any option.

## SEE ALSO

*CERT® Security Improvement Modules (link to URL http://www.cert.org/security-improvement/)*

*The TITAN FAQ (link to URL http://www.trouble.org/titan/FAQ.html)*

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Javier Fernandez-Sanguino Peña \<jfs@computer.org\> for  the **Debian** system (but may be used by others).  Permission is  granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under  the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 any   later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public  License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.