Please add a facility to send a message to the user
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2022 6:19 pm
Please add a facility to enable the server to send a short message to the user (e.g. max 80 chars), both in case of an authentication failure and also in case of authentication success.
This message would be sent to stderr in case of a commandline client, or displayed as a popup in case of a GUI client.
When the client is logging, it would also be written to the logfile.
Rationale: there actually are several use cases for this. E.g. in case of authentication failure the reason for the failure could be shown to the user. On our system we allow only a single connection per user, this is checked in a client-connect script, but the script can only return "error" and the user does not see the reason why it fails. Others may have a blacklist or payment requirement etc for users, and a user logging on could receive an appropriate message as to why they are not allowed to connect at this time.
But in case of authentication success there also can be reasons for such a message, e.g. we are now migrating all users to a new server with newly setup PKI, and the users have been sent new certificates. A message would be displayed to alert the user that they need to use the new certificate soon.
The server should be able to send a message either from static configuration or via the dynamic config file written e.g. with a client-connect script.
Of course it will take a while before such a change will actually have any function, as it requires changes in server and client. But it would be valuable when it is at least available in some future version.
This message would be sent to stderr in case of a commandline client, or displayed as a popup in case of a GUI client.
When the client is logging, it would also be written to the logfile.
Rationale: there actually are several use cases for this. E.g. in case of authentication failure the reason for the failure could be shown to the user. On our system we allow only a single connection per user, this is checked in a client-connect script, but the script can only return "error" and the user does not see the reason why it fails. Others may have a blacklist or payment requirement etc for users, and a user logging on could receive an appropriate message as to why they are not allowed to connect at this time.
But in case of authentication success there also can be reasons for such a message, e.g. we are now migrating all users to a new server with newly setup PKI, and the users have been sent new certificates. A message would be displayed to alert the user that they need to use the new certificate soon.
The server should be able to send a message either from static configuration or via the dynamic config file written e.g. with a client-connect script.
Of course it will take a while before such a change will actually have any function, as it requires changes in server and client. But it would be valuable when it is at least available in some future version.