Please make /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available world readable

[Balint Reczey]

[Impact]

 * /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available is not readable for regular users which prevents assembling MOTD with a regular user's rights.
ug.
 * This prevents showing package information when the user is dropped to a regular user's shell in WSL.

[Test Case]

 * The file should be world-readable
 $ sudo apt update
 $ ls -alh /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 83 Sep 19 15:29 /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available

[Regression Potential]

 * The fix is very simple, only a chmod command to leave the file world readable. Regressions are ulikely.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-notifier - 3.192.27

---------------
update-notifier (3.192.27) focal; urgency=medium

  * Notify user about stale updates information in motd (LP: #1842159)
  * Make /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available world-readable
    (LP: #1844704)
  * data/update-motd-hwe-eol: Run as a regular user without printing errors
    (LP: #185527)
  * data/update-motd-hwe-eol: Shortcut script when running in a container.
    There is no point in checking the HWE stack in a container since upgrading
    it would not affect the host system. (LP: #1855290)
  * data/update-motd-fsck-at-reboot: Shortcut script when running it as
    a regular user (LP: #185527)

 -- Balint Reczey <email address hidden> Thu, 05 Dec 2019 15:02:52 +0100

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

Hello Balint, or anyone else affected,

Accepted update-notifier into eoan-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/3.192.26.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-eoan to verification-done-eoan. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-eoan. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Balint Reczey (rbalint)]

root@ee-motd-verify:~# apt update -qq
28 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
root@ee-motd-verify:~# update-motd
Welcome to Ubuntu 19.10 (GNU/Linux 5.0.0-37-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management: https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage

  System information as of Mon Dec 16 14:13:28 UTC 2019

  System load: 0.78 Processes: 28
  Usage of /home: unknown Users logged in: 0
  Memory usage: 0% IP address for eth0: 10.84.73.58
  Swap usage: 38%

28 updates can be installed immediately.
0 of these updates are security updates.
To see these additional updates run: apt list --upgradable

root@ee-motd-verify:~# dpkg -l update-notifier-common | cat
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-======================-============-============-=======================================================
ii update-notifier-common 3.192.26.1 all Files shared between update-notifier and other packages
root@ee-motd-verify:~# ls -alh /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 143 Dec 16 14:13 /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package update-notifier - 3.192.26.1

---------------
update-notifier (3.192.26.1) eoan; urgency=medium

  * Notify user about stale updates information in motd (LP: #1842159)
  * Make /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available world-readable
    (LP: #1844704)
  * data/update-motd-hwe-eol: Run as a regular user without printing errors
    (LP: #1855271)
  * data/update-motd-hwe-eol: Shortcut script when running in a container.
    There is no point in checking the HWE stack in a container since upgrading
    it would not affect the host system. (LP: #1855290)
  * data/update-motd-fsck-at-reboot: Shortcut script when running it as
    a regular user (LP: #1855271)

 -- Balint Reczey <email address hidden> Thu, 05 Dec 2019 15:02:52 +0100

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for update-notifier has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.