unix-junkie/teamviewer-debian

Prevent TeamViewer from bypassing Apt and auto-updating itself

$Id$

This document describes the steps required in order to prevent TeamViewer packaged for Debian Linux from silently auto-updating itself.

It is assumed that all commands are run as root.

1. Add the necessary diversions (will affect package files once those are installed):

   mkdir -p /etc/apt/sources.list.d.disabled
   dpkg-divert --local --rename --divert /etc/apt/sources.list.d.disabled/teamviewer.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list

   There's an alternative method to prevent packages from installing new sources under /etc/apt/sources.list.d: one needs to add a file to /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/ (named, let's say, no-new-sources), with the following contents:

   #
   # /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/no-new-sources
   #
   # vim:ft=conf:
   #
   # Prevent packages from installing new sources under /etc/apt/sources.list.d
   #
   
   path-exclude=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/*
   

2. Install the package as usual:

   dpkg -i teamviewer_13.2.26559_amd64.deb

3. Apt may still have TeamViewer's GPG key present in its trusted database (/etc/apt/trusted.gpg):

   $ apt-key list
   ...
   pub   rsa4096 2017-03-13 [SC]
         8CAE 012E BFAC 38B1 7A93  7CD8 C5E2 2450 0C12 89C0
   uid           [ unknown] TeamViewer GmbH (TeamViewer Linux 2017) <[email protected]>
   sub   rsa4096 2017-03-13 [E]
   ...
   

   If this is the case, delete the key:

   apt-key del 0C1289C0

4. That's it.