Enabling automatic logoff
Enable automatic logoff to prevent an intruder from compromising the security of the system.
Another valid security concern results from users leaving their accounts unattended for a lengthy period of time. This situation allows an intruder to take control of the user's terminal, potentially compromising the security of the system.
To prevent this type
of potential security hazard, you can enable automatic logoff on the
system. To do this, set the TMOUT and TIMEOUT environment
variables to the number of seconds of inactivity. After the inactive
time is elapsed, you are logged off automatically, as in the following
example:
TMOUT=600; TIMEOUT=600; export TMOUT TIMEOUTIn
the above example, the number 600 is in seconds, which is equal to
10 minutes. This method works solely from the shell application. The
variables can be protected from accidental overwriting by making them
read only, as follows:
readonly TMOUT TIMEOUT