Strange kernel log message

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 2007-11-26 09:58, Ceri Davies <ceri at submonkey.net> wrote:
> So I have this in my security run output:
> kernel log messages:
> +++ /tmp/security.hLYJI0kF	Sun Nov 25 03:01:02 2007
> +<<<<222>2>>>NNNMNMMIII M  III SIISAS SAAA  3 303,020,0 ,,  EE IEIIESSSAIAA S A f ffffff
> +
> +
> +f
>
> WTF now?
>
> I'm not sure if that's a real kernel message that got garbled or whether
> I should be worried about naughtiness.

It looks like multiple messages overlapping each other.  Removing 3
characters every 4 bytes in the output produces things which seem
vaguely recognizable:

    <22NNI II A ,,,EISA  fff
    <<2>NMI  SS 300  ISAAfff

There's a sysctl option which you can tweak to make this less likely to
happen, but I am not sure about its name.  Our console gurus can help
you track it down and tune its value :)