> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://snubmonkey.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How to Disable motd-news. (Ubuntu) - URL: https://snubmonkey.com/motd/ - Published: 2023-11-02T13:52:43.000Z - Updated: 2025-04-16T22:30:28.000Z - Author: yannick Coffi - Tags: how to 🪄, linux 🐧 **MOTD** is the abbreviation of "*Message Of The Day*", and it is used to display messages when a remote user logs in to the Linux Operating system using **SSH**. According to `/etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news` file the system sends a request to your Ubuntu server containing information about the release version, kernel version, CPU architecture, cloud ID, and some annoying Canonical ads. The typical message looks like this: ``` $ autossh -M 0 Xxxx1x23@192.168.1.156 -p xxxxx Xxxx1x23@192.168.1.156's password: Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.0-84-generic x86_64) * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com * Management: https://landscape.canonical.com * Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage System information as of Wed Sep 20 11:39:25 PM UTC 2023 System load: 0.1689453125 Processes: 141 Usage of /: 9.4% of 9.77GB Users logged in: 0 Memory usage: 30% IPv4 address for enp0s3: 192.168.1.156 Swap usage: 0% * Strictly confined Kubernetes makes edge and IoT secure. Learn how MicroK8s just raised the bar for easy, resilient and secure K8s cluster deployment. https://ubuntu.com/engage/secure-kubernetes-at-the-edge Expanded Security Maintenance for Applications is not enabled. 0 updates can be applied immediately. 12 additional security updates can be applied with ESM Apps. Learn more about enabling ESM Apps service at https://ubuntu.com/esm ``` The idea is to show the user some useful information on login. It looks reasonable, but I don’t like/trust when my system sends some data about my configuration to an external server from time to time even if it’s a server of Canonical. As we can see from above; info can be quite sensitive plus the "user agent" string used to contact the *motd-news server* sends a small amount of potentially sensitive information; as such (load, processes, update, reboot required, zombie). Again; it is not clear whether that information is tracked by Canonical but the question of privacy is still present. **Remember there is such a thing as a "minor privacy breach".** The CPU info could be used to alert for the next *Spectre* or *Meltdown.* The kernel version can be used to show critical messages (*that no one would read*) in case there are kernel exploits. But why would Ubuntu be interested in my *uptime* or the *name of the cloud provider? –* (*which, by the way, can already be determined because the HTTP call would show my source IP and that’s easily mapped back to a cloud provider, only a small portion of users would HTTP proxy all their outgoing traffic*). **Now, what if we don’t want all of that?** ### Disabling motd-news We need to modify its default configuration. Let's jump to that file. ``` $ nano /etc/default/motd-news OUTPUT # Enable/disable the dynamic MOTD news service # This is a useful way to provide dynamic, informative # information pertinent to the users and administrators # of the local system ENABLED=1 # Configure the source of dynamic MOTD news # White space separated list of 0 to many news services # For security reasons, these must be https # and have a valid certificate # Canonical runs a service at motd.ubuntu.com, and you # can easily run one too URLS="https://motd.ubuntu.com" # Specify the time in seconds, you're willing to wait for # dynamic MOTD news # Note that news messages are fetched in the background by # a systemd timer, so this should never block boot or login WAIT=5 ``` Change `ENABLED=1` to `ENABLED=0`. We will as well comment *#* `URLS` and `WAIT` parameters. ### Disabling parts of the dynamic motd The actual MOTD message is divided into several pieces of script, each of which contains a separate piece of information. For instance, details on package upgrades, a file-system check, etc. The MOTD scripts are located in `/etc/update-motd.d`, and by disabling the executable permissions of any specific script, the scripts will not be triggered and no longer appear on the MOTD. let's `ls -l /etc/update-motd.d` ``` $ ls -l /etc/update-motd.d OUTPUT total 52 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1220 Oct 15 2021 00-header -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1157 Oct 15 2021 10-help-text lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 46 Feb 17 2023 50-landscape-sysinfo -> /usr/share/landscape/landscape-sysinfo.wrapper -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5023 Oct 15 2021 50-motd-news -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 84 Sep 20 2022 85-fwupd -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 218 Jan 20 2023 90-updates-available -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 296 Apr 5 15:14 91-contract-ua-esm-status -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 558 Feb 10 2023 91-release-upgrade -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 165 Feb 19 2021 92-unattended-upgrades -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 379 Jan 20 2023 95-hwe-eol -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 111 Aug 17 2020 97-overlayroot -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 142 Jan 20 2023 98-fsck-at-reboot -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 144 Jan 20 2023 98-reboot-required ``` If we don't want to see any specific messages we just need to stop it from running. Basically, locate any script you wish to disable and remove the executable permissions using the **`chmod`** command. For instance; the following command will disable the updates available message. ``` $ sudo chmod -x /etc/update-motd.d/90-updates-available or $ sudo chmod 755 /etc/update-motd.d/90-updates-available ``` etc... If we want to re-enable its executable permission use one of the following commands. ``` $ sudo chmod +x /etc/update-motd.d/90-updates-available or $ sudo chmod 766 /etc/update-motd.d/90-updates-available ``` ### Disabling dynamic motd entirely As we can see there are some dynamic *motd systemd services* running; ``` $ systemctl list-unit-files | grep motd OUTPUT motd-news.service static - update-notifier-motd.service static - motd-news.timer enabled enabled update-notifier-motd.timer enabled enabled ``` We need to disable those two `motd-news.service` and `motd-news.timer`. ``` $ sudo systemctl stop motd-news.service OUTPUT Warning: Stopping motd-news.service, but it can still be activated by: motd-news.timer $ sudo systemctl stop motd-news.timer ``` here is a warning... We need to stop `motd-news.timer` *systemd units* as well. ``` $ sudo systemctl stop motd-news.timer ``` Now we need to disable both `motd-news.service` and `motd-news.timer` to prevent them from starting after a reboot. ``` $ sudo systemctl disable motd-news.service && sudo systemctl disable motd-news.timer OUTPUT Removed "/etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/motd-news.timer". ``` Make sure that they are actually disabled by checking their `status`. ``` $ sudo systemctl status motd-news.service || sudo systemctl status motd-news.timer [sudo] password for jupiter: ○ motd-news.service - Message of the Day Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/motd-news.service; static) Active: inactive (dead) Docs: man:update-motd(8) ... .. . ○ motd-news.timer - Message of the Day Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/motd-news.timer; disabled; preset: enabled) Active: inactive (dead) Trigger: n/a Triggers: ● motd-news.service Sep 21 01:08:29 virtualgegeno systemd[1]: Started motd-news.timer - Message of the Day. Sep 21 01:10:54 virtualgegeno systemd[1]: motd-news.timer: Deactivated successfully. Sep 21 01:10:54 virtualgegeno systemd[1]: Stopped motd-news.timer - Message of the Day. Sep 21 01:10:54 virtualgegeno systemd[1]: Stopping motd-news.timer - Message of the Day... Sep 21 01:10:54 virtualgegeno systemd[1]: Started motd-news.timer - Message of the Day. Sep 21 01:14:42 virtualgegeno systemd[1]: motd-news.timer: Deactivated successfully. Sep 21 01:14:42 virtualgegeno systemd[1]: Stopped motd-news.timer - Message of the Day. ``` You are all set. We hope this guide was a good help.