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How to get information out of the system logfiles on Linux. Showing failed logins.

There are a few ways to get information out of the /var/log files using the Linux command line. Here are a few examples.

Show the history of apt commands on your Linux box with this command.

jason@eyjafjallajkull:~$ grep 'Commandline: ' /var/log/apt/history.log
Commandline: apt-get upgrade
Commandline: apt-get install gnome-alsamixer
Commandline: apt-get install indicator-sound-switcher
Commandline: apt-get upgrade
Commandline: apt-get upgrade
Commandline: apt-get upgrade
Commandline: apt-get upgrade
Commandline: apt-get install unity8
Commandline: apt-get install gnome-common

To view all commands run with sudo on your system, use this command: sudo cat /var/log/sudo.log this will list all commands run with sudo and by which user.

Getting information about password changes and related information from /var/log/auth.log.

jason@darkstar:~$ sudo cat /var/log/auth.log | grep "password"
Jul 21 21:59:01 darkstar chage[5210]: changed password expiry for libvirt-qemu
Jul 22 18:40:22 darkstar sudo: pam_unix(sudo:auth): auth could not identify password for [steam]
Jul 22 18:40:34 darkstar passwd[1587]: pam_unix(passwd:chauthtok): password changed for steam
Jul 22 18:40:34 darkstar passwd[1587]: gkr-pam: couldn't update the login keyring password: no old password was entered
Jul 28 22:41:03 darkstar usermod[2053]: change user 'netplan' password
Jul 28 22:41:04 darkstar chage[2058]: changed password expiry for netplan
Jul 29 11:19:13 darkstar sshd[4210]: Accepted password for jason from ::1 port 46152 ssh2

Listing all successful SSH logins to my machine.

jason@darkstar:~$ sudo cat /var/log/auth.log | grep 'sshd.*opened'
Jul 29 11:19:13 darkstar sshd[4210]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user jason by (uid=0)

Listing all unsuccessful SSH login attempts.

jason@darkstar:~$ sudo cat /var/log/auth.log | grep 'sshd.*Failed'
Jul 29 11:24:53 darkstar sshd[4290]: Failed password for jason from ::1 port 46196 ssh2
Jul 29 11:25:15 darkstar sshd[4301]: Failed password for jason from ::1 port 46197 ssh2
Jul 29 11:25:21 darkstar sshd[4301]: Failed password for jason from ::1 port 46197 ssh2
Jul 29 11:25:25 darkstar sshd[4301]: Failed password for jason from ::1 port 46197 ssh2

Use the lastb command to read the /var/log/btmp file and return all bad login attempts.

jason@darkstar:~$ sudo lastb -x -F
jason    ssh:notty    localhost        Wed Jul 29 11:25:25 2015 - Wed Jul 29 11:25:25 2015  (00:00)    
jason    ssh:notty    localhost        Wed Jul 29 11:25:21 2015 - Wed Jul 29 11:25:21 2015  (00:00)    
jason    ssh:notty    localhost        Wed Jul 29 11:25:15 2015 - Wed Jul 29 11:25:15 2015  (00:00)    
jason    ssh:notty    localhost        Wed Jul 29 11:24:53 2015 - Wed Jul 29 11:24:53 2015  (00:00)    
 
btmp begins Wed Jul 29 11:24:53 2015

And the last command shows all successful login attempts to your Linux box.

jason@darkstar:~$ last | head -n 20
jason    pts/3        localhost        Wed Jul 29 11:19 - 11:19  (00:00)    
jason    pts/2        :0.0             Wed Jul 29 11:17   still logged in   
jason    pts/0        :0.0             Wed Jul 29 10:22   still logged in   
jason    pts/0        :0.0             Wed Jul 29 09:28 - 10:19  (00:51)    
jason    :0           :0               Wed Jul 29 09:27   still logged in   
reboot   system boot  3.16.0-4-amd64   Wed Jul 29 09:27 - 11:36  (02:09)    
jason    pts/0        :0.0             Tue Jul 28 22:39 - 23:38  (00:58)    
jason    :0           :0               Tue Jul 28 22:36 - down   (01:01)    
reboot   system boot  3.16.0-4-amd64   Tue Jul 28 22:35 - 23:38  (01:02)    
jason    pts/1        :0.0             Tue Jul 28 15:22 - 15:52  (00:29)    
jason    :0           :0               Tue Jul 28 14:35 - down   (01:17)    
reboot   system boot  3.16.0-4-amd64   Tue Jul 28 14:35 - 15:53  (01:18)    
jason    pts/0        :0.0             Tue Jul 28 14:27 - 14:31  (00:03)    
jason    :0           :0               Tue Jul 28 14:25 - down   (00:09)    
jason    pts/0        :0               Tue Jul 28 14:23 - 14:24  (00:01)    
jason    :0           :0               Tue Jul 28 14:22 - 14:24  (00:02)    
jason    pts/0        :0.0             Tue Jul 28 13:52 - 14:22  (00:30)    
jason    :0           :0               Tue Jul 28 13:50 - 14:22  (00:31)    
reboot   system boot  3.16.0-4-amd64   Tue Jul 28 13:50 - 14:34  (00:44)    
jason    pts/1        :0.0             Tue Jul 28 13:47 - 13:48  (00:01)

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