How to check if a Debian update is available

One9twO
Oct 27, 2023

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Sometimes we need to patch packages on OS distributions which are close or past EOL.

If upstream updates are still available, it saves us a lot of effort patching dependencies from binary.

To verify if an upstream update is available (e.g. curl), you can search in the security-tracker website like below:

On my recent search, Debian Buster should receive a u7 update:

buster (security)7.64.0–4+deb10u7

In my environment, I could only patch to u6.

# apt-cache policy curl
curl:
Installed: 7.64.0-4+deb10u6
Candidate: 7.64.0-4+deb10u6

A simple fix is to run apt update , then the new update candidate will be shown:

# apt-cache policy curl
curl:
Installed: 7.64.0-4+deb10u6
Candidate: 7.64.0-4+deb10u7

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One9twO
One9twO

Written by One9twO

A security engineer who shifts things left

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