12.04 running DNSMASQ by default

New. I didn't see that before. 12.04 running DNSMASQ by default. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuDesktop (5th bullet point).

See also http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1968061

To disable:- (for those that want to)

/etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

and comment the

dns=dnsmasq

line. Then do a

sudo restart network-manager

 

I'm not clear on whether this is a big deal or not in terms of security on my Ubuntu box. Have you gotten a sense of the problem?

 

I was having dns lookup issues randomly, maybe every 10 or 15 lookups, but it was annoying. I commented out the dnsmasq line mentioned above, and the problem went away. All is well now... Don't know what it means, but it works.....

 

I also don't see much of an issue especially since caching is off by default.

 

There are some additional comments in that thread from today. It sounds like it was much ado about nothing- DNSMASQ doesn't seem to be a security problem. (Do I smell FUD?)

Apparently DNSMASQ causes some functionality problems for some people, so the workaround will be useful for them.

 

Yeah, nothing to worry about ..

 

Confusing, I thought the point of making such a critical change was to alleviate issues, not replace the old issues with new ones? :/

Glad to hear it's not a security issue, I'm not a fan of having to tinker with such things after an install.