Unattended-Upgrade

Upgrading External Packages with unattended-upgrade

The unattended-upgrade tool is a great way to keep your system automatically updated. Learn how it works and how configure it.

Summary

The unattended-upgrade tool is a great way to keep your system automatically updated. While you might not always want to do that for all packages, it definitely can be a great way to assist in your security efforts. In that case, tell it to track security updates and install the related packages. If you are using third-party packages (e.g. via PPAs), the system has no idea about security updates for those packages.

Using unattended-upgrades on Debian and Ubuntu

To counter the biggest threat to software packages, Debian and Ubuntu based systems can use unattended-upgrades, to install security patches automatically.

Summary

To counter the biggest threat to software packages, they should be updated on a regular basis. Vulnerabilities are discovered on a daily basis, which also requires we monitor daily. Software patching takes time, especially when testing and reboots are needed. Fortunately, systems running Debian and Ubuntu can use unattended-upgrades to achieve automated patch management for security updates. Installation With most software packages, unattended-upgrades has to be installed. apt install unattended-upgrades