This bug was fixed in the package needrestart - 3.5-5ubuntu2.5
---------------
needrestart (3.5-5ubuntu2.5) jammy; urgency=medium
* Make stdio noninteractive if DEBIAN_FRONTEND='noninteractive'
(LP: #2004203)
- d/p/0001-UI-Make-stdio-noninteractive-if-DEBIAN_FRONTEND-noni.patch:
Cherrypick of upstream pull request 214
- Drop d/p/168.patch (upstream pull request 168) which was an
incomplete fix supersided by PR 214.
-- Zachary Raines <[email protected]> Wed, 10 Sep 2025
19:15:59 +0000
** Changed in: needrestart (Ubuntu Jammy)
Status: Fix Committed => Fix Released
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2004203
Title:
Make stdio noninteractive if DEBIAN_FRONTEND='noninteractive'
Status in needrestart package in Ubuntu:
Fix Released
Status in needrestart source package in Jammy:
Fix Released
Bug description:
[ Impact ]
* Servers and other systems running `unattended-upgrades` will not
automatically restart services that use binaries that were updated,
even when explicitly configured to do so. This may lead to security
holes remaining open or other misbehaviour, until the machine or
services are restarted for other reasons. This defeats the primary
functionality of that package.
[ Test Plan ]
* Use an Ubuntu Jammy test system with typical configuration. I used
a fresh LXD container.
* Install `unattended-upgrades`. Ensure `needrestart` and `update-
notifier-common` are also installed, but that should usually be the
case.
* Configure `needrestart` to automatically restart services:
* Create `/etc/needrestart/conf.d/auto-restart.conf` with content:
$nrconf{restart} = 'a';
* Locate any package that some running service has an indirect dependency on
(such as libc, libssl3, python, java, etc). Using something more uncommon like
java might be easier than something that has a lot of dependencies like
libc/libssl3.
* In my case I chose `<dep>=libc6` and `<service>=cron`.
* `apt list -a <dep>` to see other versions of the package. Usually
there will be an older version available from the main repository,
while the current version is from the update or security repository.
* `sudo apt install <dep>=<version>` to explicitly downgrade the package to
the older version. (You may need to select a different package, or more
packages, to resolve conflicts or avoid removing other packages.)
* Observe that the dependent services will be automatically restarted
when you do this. (I checked this via the start time in `systemctl status
<service>`.)
* `sudo unattended-upgrade` to request immediate upgrade of outdated
packages, which should reverse the above change.
* Confirm that the services in question are actually restarted. (Again I
confirmed this via `systemctl status <service>`.)
[ Where problems could occur ]
* There is a low chance of regressions given that the patch has
been included in the packaged deb since kinetic.
* Since this bug has been around for some time a number of users may have
implemented workarounds in their scripts that this fix could break.
* I have tested at least one workaround which was discussed on the
associated github issue (https://github.com/liske/needrestart/issues/270) and
confirmed that this fix does not break it. Namely running `needrestart -r a -f
readline` after `unattended-upgrade` does not prompt and does not cause any
additional restarts.
* Someone could have been relying on the broken behavior to avoid
automatic restarts. This seems unlikely, as it is directly against the
described behavior of the package.
[ Other Info ]
Related:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unattended-upgrades/+bug/2055280
Related: https://github.com/liske/needrestart/issues/270
Related: https://github.com/liske/needrestart/pull/214 (upstream patch)
The debdiff has been updated since security patches were released
since juergh's upload, but the fix is substantially the same.
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