/etc/nologin file disappears

From: wayne (wayne_at_localhost.localdomain)
Date: 06/25/03 

Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 22:28:42 GMT

I am trying to make my system at home as secure as possible.
One thing I tried was to create a /etc/nologin file. It
worked in that I couldn't log in to ssh as me, but I could
as root. After shutting down for the night, the next day the
file was gone! File privileges were set to 444. What's going
on?

I also want to prevent root from logging in. The /etc/ssh/
sshd_config file has the following:

    #PermitRootLogin yes

Because it is commented out, I am assuming that the default
is no. Do I need to explicitly set it to no?

One other issue, the contents of /etc/nologin is not echoed
when I attempt to log in as me. It simply fails after three
tries and hangs up. When I ssh in as root, the contents of
/etc/nologin are echoed. This is not working as advertised.

I am running Redhat 9.1 with openssh-3.5p1-6.

Thanks,

-- Wayne.

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