[Secure-testing-team] Bug#702509: unattended-upgrades: does not run autonomously, even after it was enabled

[g0to]

Package: unattended-upgrades
Version: 0.79.4
Severity: grave
Tags: security
Justification: renders package unusable

Dear Maintainer,

after trying to make it run by myself and googling and make a few questions here[1] and there[2], I've decided to contact you to report what seems to be a lack of functionality of the package.

Following the instructions in "/usr/share/doc/unattended-upgrades/README", after installing the package, I enabled it

    sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

uncommented the proper lines in "/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades" (below) and waited for it to unattendedly keeps my system update. But that didn't happen.
After checking the logs in "/var/log/unattended-upgrades/" and "/var/log/apt/history.log" for several days, no activity was recorded there.
I also tried running it in the "--dry-run" way and it "dry worked" with no errors.

I've tagged the bug like a security issue because someone could trust the security updates of their system after installing and enabling the package and don't check if it's working after a long, and potentially insecure, time.

Thank you for your time and for your job maintaining the package.

Cheers,
g0to

[1]
http://serverfault.com/questions/483751/unattended-upgrades-doesnt-upgrade-or-does-nothing-at-all
[2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2013/03/msg00394.html


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.0
Architecture: armhf (armv6l)

Kernel: Linux 3.6.11+ (PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages unattended-upgrades depends on:
ii  apt                    0.9.7.7+rpi1
ii  apt-utils              0.9.7.7+rpi1
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.49
ii  lsb-base               4.1+Debian8+rpi1
ii  lsb-release            4.1+Debian8+rpi1
ii  python                 2.7.3-4
ii  python-apt             0.8.8.1
ii  ucf                    3.0025+nmu3
ii  xz-utils               5.1.1alpha+20120614-2

unattended-upgrades recommends no packages.

Versions of packages unattended-upgrades suggests:
pn  bsd-mailx             <none>
pn  mail-transport-agent  <none>

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades changed:
// Automatically upgrade packages from these origin patterns
Unattended-Upgrade::Origins-Pattern {
        // Codename based matching:
        // This will follow the migration of a release through different
        // archives (e.g. from testing to stable and later oldstable).
        "o=Debian,n=wheezy";
        "o=Debian,n=wheezy-updates";
        "o=Debian,n=wheezy-proposed-updates";
        "o=Debian,n=wheezy,l=Debian-Security";
        // Archive or Suite based matching:
        // Note that this will silently match a different release after
        // migration to the specified archive (e.g. testing becomes the
        // new stable).
//      "o=Debian,a=stable";
//      "o=Debian,a=stable-updates";
//      "o=Debian,a=proposed-updates";
//      "origin=Debian,archive=stable,label=Debian-Security";
};
// List of packages to not update
Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist {
//	"vim";
//	"libc6";
//	"libc6-dev";
//	"libc6-i686";
};
// This option allows you to control if on a unclean dpkg exit
// unattended-upgrades will automatically run 
//   dpkg --force-confold --configure -a
// The default is true, to ensure updates keep getting installed
//Unattended-Upgrade::AutoFixInterruptedDpkg "false";
// Split the upgrade into the smallest possible chunks so that
// they can be interrupted with SIGUSR1. This makes the upgrade
// a bit slower but it has the benefit that shutdown while a upgrade
// is running is possible (with a small delay)
//Unattended-Upgrade::MinimalSteps "true";
// Install all unattended-upgrades when the machine is shuting down
// instead of doing it in the background while the machine is running
// This will (obviously) make shutdown slower
//Unattended-Upgrade::InstallOnShutdown "true";
// Send email to this address for problems or packages upgrades
// If empty or unset then no email is sent, make sure that you
// have a working mail setup on your system. A package that provides
// 'mailx' must be installed. E.g. "user at example.com"
//Unattended-Upgrade::Mail "root"
// Set this value to "true" to get emails only on errors. Default
// is to always send a mail if Unattended-Upgrade::Mail is set
//Unattended-Upgrade::MailOnlyOnError "true";
// Do automatic removal of new unused dependencies after the upgrade
// (equivalent to apt-get autoremove)
Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true";
// Automatically reboot *WITHOUT CONFIRMATION* if a 
// the file /var/run/reboot-required is found after the upgrade 
Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "true";
// Use apt bandwidth limit feature, this example limits the download
// speed to 70kb/sec
//Acquire::http::Dl-Limit "70";


-- debconf information:
* unattended-upgrades/enable_auto_updates: true