File /etc/machine-id Security and Privancy Concern

[BitJam]

There have been a lot of problems with the Debian init.d scripts. I would not be surprised if you found another one.

[dphn]

on my MX System dbus-uuidgen is working, so the file /var/lib/dbus/machine-id created at first boot. /etc/machine-id not exists in regular MX-ISOs. This file not created at first boot; /etc/machine-id is a systemd thing only. For compatibility to systemd it's better there is a symlink to /var/lib/dbus/machine-id for apps like google-chrome.

[figueroa]

on my MX System dbus-uuidgen is working, so the file /var/lib/dbus/machine-id created at first boot. /etc/machine-id not exists in regular MX-ISOs. This file not created at first boot; /etc/machine-id is a systemd thing only. For compatibility to systemd it's better there is a symlink to /var/lib/dbus/machine-id for apps like google-chrome.

On my system where I am testing this. dbus-uuidgen works. There are invocations to use it to create /var/lib/dbus/machine-id in the file /etc/init.d/dbus. It doesn't, however, create the file when it is missing. The dbus init file is 2813 bytes dated Oct 1,2017.

If I stop dbus, then kill all other dbus-daemon and dbus-launch then manually invoke /etc/init.d/dbus start, the file /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is created. /etc/machine-id is not created. (stopping dbus and killing dbus related processes kills the desktop)

My conclusion is that dbus init file is not being invoked on startup. Something else must, therefore, be starting dbus damons during boot before the dbus init file is invoked. (If dbus is running, the dbus init script won't run.)

[Adrian]

/etc/machine-id is created by systemd, so for example if it doesn't exist and update systemd that files gets created that's how it can get out of sync with the other file. You could symlink it to the other file if a program expect the /etc/machine-id file.

[crazysquirrel]

Why does Linux even bother to create those ID's?
I see no use for them.

Personally I do not want UUID's. fingerprints, etc available to any browser or software that can send the information to the internet.

(hate UUID's anyway. too much to type lol)

[Adrian]

If for example you have a number of virtual machines you might need to be able to distinguish them.

[skidoo]

{rolleyes} c'mon, that's a pretty lame example "why".

When machine-id initially showed up in ubuntu//debian (hint: the PERIOD at the end of first sentence in my earlier post is a hyperlink anchor)
my first guess what that it was intended to facilitate accurate popcon voting. Nope, I couldn't find anywhere in the popcon code referring to machine-id.
Debian (package) Popularity Contest
Ubuntu (package) Popularity Contest

[crazysquirrel]

If for example you have a number of virtual machines you might need to be able to distinguish them.

I have had several VM's and never needed machine id's. I just labeled them with what they were. XP for an XM vm, Mint for a Mint one, etc.

I suppose machine ID's are the same as hardware id's but more vague?

[skidoo]

I just meant that assigning UUIDs (32character alphanumeric names)
33f142deb73233f0a8e100c56c807bb4
and managing a lookup table to keep track of which is which... would be lame (impractical) compared to just referring to 'em by memorable hostnames, f'rinstance

[Adrian]

If for example you have a number of virtual machines you might need to be able to distinguish them.

I have had several VM's and never needed machine id's. I just labeled them with what they were. XP for an XM vm, Mint for a Mint one, etc.

I suppose machine ID's are the same as hardware id's but more vague?

By multiple VM instances I meant something like hundreds or thousands, not 2-3 on your machine. Not sure about history other that it was introduced by D-Bus package and I see post about it at least since 2006 (if I'm to trust google on that)
https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-uuidgen.1.html

The important properties of the machine UUID are that 1) it remains unchanged until the next reboot and 2) it is different for any two running instances of the OS kernel. That is, if two processes see the same UUID, they should also see the same shared memory, UNIX domain sockets, local X displays, localhost.localdomain resolution, process IDs, and so forth.