last command - strange entries?

[Neo-Vortex]

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005, Saurabh Bhasin wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I am seeing strange entries when i perform "last -20" for example.
> Here's a sample output becuase I can not seem to make any sense out of
> this in the last two days and can't find any information online. Any
> help is appreciated.
>
> 0                F=°Bttyp                  Wed Dec 31 16:00   still logged in
> 0                6Û¯Bttyp                  Wed Dec 31 16:00   still logged in
> 0                mÚ¯Bttyp                  Wed Dec 31 16:00   still logged in
> 7                mÚ¯Bttyv                  Wed Dec 31 16:00   still logged in
> 0                ¯Bttyp                  Wed Dec 31 16:00   still logged in
> 0                (o¯Bttyp                  Wed Dec 31 16:00   still logged in
> 2                ëg¯Bttyp                  Wed Dec 31 16:00   still logged in
> .
>
> and it keeps going for 20 lines.

The last command uses /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/utmp (mabe even
/var/log/lastlog) - anyway, the point is, it uses those files to get the
information, now, it appears as if they have become corrupt, mabe by
userland/kernel land desynch? bad upgrade? tried a reboot?

Else, can you give us more details about the system, past upgrades,
intrusions?

~NVX