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Why I Never Trust Pre-Installed Packages on Linux or Ubuntu Servers
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When I spin up a fresh server, the first thing I do?
I uninstall things.
That might sound paranoid. But experience (and audits) taught me:
“Default isn’t always safe.”
“Default isn’t always safe.”
Here’s why pre-installed packages can silently weaken your server security — and what I do instead.
🧨 Problem #1: Bloat You Didn’t Ask For
On many Ubuntu cloud images or even some Linux VPS setups, you’ll find:
- snapd installed (often unused and outdated)
- Web servers like apache2 quietly running
- Monitoring agents or telemetry tools
These packages increase attack surface — especially if you don’t patch them (because you didn’t know they were there).
✅ Fix:
sudo apt remove apache2 snapd landscape-common
🕵️ Problem #2: Services Running in Background
Try this:
sudo ss -tulpn
I once found an old rsync daemon active from a template image — wide open to the internet.
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