Prevent Ubuntu from phoning home
![Linux: Linux kernel and stuff Linux](/uploads/tux.serendipityThumb.png)
Ubuntu unfortunately has decided again to implement another "phone home" feature, this time transferring your lsb_release
information, CPU model and speed (from /proc/cpuinfo
), uptime
output, most of uname -a
and curl version to a Ubuntu news web-service.
Here is the Launchpad bug report #1637800 introducing this ... web bug.
This thing runs both systemd-timer based (via /lib/systemd/system/motd-news.service
and /lib/systemd/system/motd-news.timer
) and on request when you log in (via /etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news
).
There has even been a bug filed about the motd advertising HBO's Silicon Valley show.
To prevent this from running (it is enabled by default on Ubuntu 17.04 and may probably propagate down to earlier versions as well), edit
/etc/default/motd-news
to include
ENABLED=0
so
sed -i "s/ENABLED=1/ENABLED=0/" /etc/default/motd-news # run as root
for your automated installs.
Update:
02.07.2017: Dustin Kirkland responded to a YC "hacker news" mention of his motd spam. He mentions:
You're welcome to propose your own messages for merging, if you have a well formatted, informative message for Ubuntu users.
We'll be happy to review and include them in the future.
What could possibly go wrong?