NAME

ttylog - Log tty sessions

SYNOPSIS

ttylog tty
  or
ttylog -t tty  [ -w file ]
  or
ttylog -r file [ -b file ] [ -i file ] [ -o file ]

EXAMPLE

Type "w" to obtain the desired tty:

[root@host root]# w
  9:01am  up 81 days, 16:06,  5 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU  WHAT
root     pts/0    admin.com         8:19am  0.00s  0.39s  0.05s  w
joe      pts/1    workstation.wi    8:02am 39:33   2.63s  2.19s  pine
hacker   pts/4    client.isp.com    8:45am  5.00s 27.95s  1.45s  vim devil.cfg
[root@host root]#

Then connect to monitor what is being typed or what is seen through the tty:

[root@host root]# ttylog pts/4

OPTIONS

There are three modes:

DIRECT (tty): Show terminal output for a given tty to stdout. This means that you will see whatever the user sees.

WRITE (-t tty): Attach to a tty and log the I/O to a trace file for future analysis.

READ (-r file): Analyze a trace file for key strokes or for terminal output or for bandwidth usage.

--tty tty
  Specify which psuedo terminal to use
  Example: --tty pts/1
--write file
  Save the packet data to a file for later analysis
  Example: --write trace.log
--read file
  Read from a saved packet file
  Example: --read trace.log
--bandwidth file
  Log network bandwidth used to a file
  Example: --bandwidth ssh.bytes_log
--input file
  Log keystrokes sent to terminal to a file
  Example: --input keyboard.log
--output file
  Log terminal output to a file
  Example: --output terminal.log
--help
  Show this usage message.

Note that all options may be abbreviated, i.e., "-h" is the same as "--help".

DESCRIPTION

This utility is intended for attaching to currently running tty sessions for the purposes of administration, shell assisting, bandwidth tracking, and logging for debugging or training. Unlike other tty sniffers, this utility does not require any patches to the kernel or any system configuration modifications or tweaking. You can even install it AFTER someone has logged in and connect on the fly to instantly view their session which has already been currently running for a long time.

DISCLAIMER

Please be sensitive to the privacy of others! The author will not be held liable for any violation of privacy or damage that may be caused by unauthorized use of this utility. It is left to the discretion of the user of this application to deem what is appropriate.

REQUIREMENTS

This utility has been designed and is only known with work under the Linux platform, specifically the RedHat flavor, but possibly others. It requires that the strace utility be installed within the PATH. It assumes the tty sessions to be logged have been created from the sshd server. It does not work for terminal logins directly from the console. You must be the root user for permissions to use this program effectively. It is recommended that you have a very large screen and maximize your client because you will be seeing the terminal in the same dimensions as the tty of the user you are connecting to and you might not be able to see everything if your screen is constantly wrapping. The user must type at least one character to begin monitoring. Also, it is not recommended to log your own tty session as it may cause an infinite loop. If you really need to log your session, just send it to a trace file (using -w) and analyze it later (using -r) after your session is finished.

AUTHOR

Rob Brown rob@asquad.com
A-Squad.Com

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2004-2005
All rights reserved
Artistic License

SEE ALSO

w(1) strace(1)

VERSION

$Id: ttylog,v 1.10 2005/03/11 14:09:36 rob Exp $