How To Clear or Remove Last Logins History in Linux
Clear or Remove Linux Logins History Information
Do you want to view or delete the last log on your Linux server? Then this article is for you. In it we will try to tell in detail and show the commands that you need to use, as well as check the result of your actions.
You need to know that there are three standard commands for Linux systems that show information about the most recently connected users: last, lastb and lastlog. The output of these commands includes: login, time of last connection , IP address, port, etc.
If you want to preserve anonymity, it is necessary to clear the history of recent connections.
Checking last login history
First, you need to check the last login history. To do this, you need to enter one of the following commands, which will show login attempts, as well as the login history of the Linux system.
Command | Log | Description |
---|---|---|
last | /var/log/wtmp | Lists successful login/logout history |
lastb | /var/log/btmp | History of failed login attempts |
lastlog | var/log/lastlog | List of the last connected users |
Also a popular request is how to clear the lastlog file in linux history.
Check last logged users
You need to use commands last and lastb below
last
or
lastb
As we mentioned above, last uses /var/log/wtmp, and lastb /var/log/btmp. Now in order to clear wtmp/btmp, you need to use the following commands:
/var/log/wtmp
/var/log/btmp
Remove information about last login in Linux:
For removing all the information about the last logged in users, you need to clear the logs: (root required):
echo > /var/log/wtmp
echo > /var/log/btmp
echo > /var/log/lastlog
Removing last login information for exact users account:
This example command is suitable for those who need to delete the last log for a specific user.
sudo lastlog --clear --user username
username - you must specify the name of the user for whom you want to delete the last log
If you want to check that everything is done correctly, you need to use the commands below:
lastlog
lastlog --user username
If you need to clear the entire last log for all regular users:
sudo lastlog --clear --user 1000-
Conclusion
In this article, we examined in detail what last, lastb and lastlog are. What are they used for, how to check recent logins to your Linux system, indicating login time, name, IP address, etc., as well as displaying login attempts. We hope our article helped you in resolving your issue.