motd-news is present in Nvidia Jetson Nano (derived from Ubuntu) and Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi. It is enabled by default and also calling Home Ubuntu via Amazon Cloud.
motd-news is also present in Ubuntu Core 18 for embedded systems (like Tesla Car) but unlike Ubuntu Server and Desktop Distro it is not enabled by default. I don't have a Tesla car to verify if it is enabled or not. unxz ubuntu-core-18-amd64.img.xz sudo mount -o loop,offset=$((106496*512)) ubuntu-core-18-amd64.img /mnt/ sudo unsquashfs -d /tmp/core18 /mnt/system-data/var/lib/snapd/seed/snaps/core18_1668.snap /tmp/core18/etc/default/motd-news /tmp/core18/etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news /tmp/core18/lib/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/motd-news.timer /tmp/core18/var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/motd-news.timer.dsh-also /tmp/core18/var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/timers.target.wants/motd-news.timer sudo grep ENABLED /tmp/core18/etc/default/motd-news ENABLED=0 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to base-files in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1867424 Title: motd-news transmitting private hardware data without consent or knowledge in background Status in base-files package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: In package base-files there is a script /etc/update-motd.d/50-motd- news that harvests private hardware data from the machine and transmits it in the background every day. There is no notice, no consent, no nothing. This should be by default disabled until there is informed consent. This solution is simple: 1. Change ENABLED=1 to ENABLED=0 in the file /etc/default/motd-news and 2. Place a comment in the file disclosing the fact that the 50-motd-news script will harvest private hardware data and upload it to motd.ubuntu.com daily if the end-user enables it. Creating databases that maps ip address to specify hardware is a threat to both privacy and security. If an adversary knows the specific hardware and the ip address for that hardware their ability to successfully attack it is greatly increased. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/base-files/+bug/1867424/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
