Linux Format forums

Re: How secure is apt-get update/upgrade?

daudi — Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:34 pm

Author: daudi

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:34 pm

Ah yes, that makes sense. Thank you!

Re: How secure is apt-get update/upgrade?

roseway — Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:42 am

Author: roseway

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:42 am

In Debian (and presumably Ubuntu and its derivatives) packages are signed and you have to install a keyring package, otherwise you will get warning messages when installing packages. So I would say that it's pretty secure.

How secure is apt-get update/upgrade?

daudi — Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:13 am

Author: daudi

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:13 am

I was travelling recently in a country that has strong government control over the internet. While there I got nervous about doing a routine upgrade of my ubuntu system. It got me wondering if it would it be possible to intercept/poison my upgrades and install malicious software, e.g. some form of spyware. In the end I decided not to do the upgrade (possibly leaving my machine at higher risk).

Any opinions on how secure apt-get update/upgrade is?