How to change default ssh login banner

To create a cool ASCII art banner for your server, first start off by going here:

ASCII art creator/

To change the message displayed before login, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config :

sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config

and add (or uncomment) the line:

Banner /etc/banner

/etc/banner can be whatever file you want. Then edit /etc/banner

sudo vim /etc/banner

You’ll probably need to restart sshd before your changes take effect:

sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

To change the message displayed after login, edit /etc/motd :

sudo vim /etc/motd

and enter the message you want to display.