Buffer overflow attempt?

Nope. Good for a chuckle, though

[dingman]

Like many people here, I'm sure, I have software set up on my server to e-mail me about particular types of log entries, and failed login attempts are among them. Just now, I got one with a series of failed login attempts for very long usernames with lots of repeated letters and control characters in them.

My first thought, of course, was that someone was trying to exploit a buffer overflow in whatever service they were ostensibly logging in to. After all, it looks like many real overflow attempts I've seen in the past. The machine is on a DSL line, so I'm in a neighborhood that gets hit a lot, though mostly with clumsy automated attacks like Code Red and Nimda. However, a quick look determined that the service in question was 'login', which is only running on the console! How could this be? My wife is at work, and wouldn't touch the server except under duress anyway. I'm at work, too, so there's nobody who should be in the house.

Oh, wait. We have cats. Many cats. Eight of them, in fact. (Well, three are 'foster' cats up for adoption from the local shelter.) Not only that, but two of them are very young kittens who are currently locked in my study until we can get them to a vet to be certified safe for the other felines in the house. And, apparently, they are wrestling on the keyboard ;)

[mole]

I have a two year old daughter who can replicate the effect you are describing.

[victor]

Cat-like tying detected

There already exists software to lock a keyboard if it detects a cat hack:

[bitboost.com...]

What ever will they think of next? :) :)

[mivox]

ROFL... There have been a few times I tried to login to my internet connection at home, only to find the ferrets had decided my password needed changing. I finally "locked" the connection settings. Now, if I ever switch internet providers, I only hope I remember how to UNlock it. ;)