Arpwatch email since upgrading to 23.01

FrankZappa

Not sure if I have this in the correct group.
However, since upgrading to the latest (23.01) I now get a daily email with subject: "Arpwatch Notification : Cron root@pfSense periodic daily" with the following message:

X-Cron-Env: <SHELL=/bin/sh>
X-Cron-Env: <PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin>
X-Cron-Env: <LOGNAME=root>
X-Cron-Env: <USER=root>

eval: mail: not found
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
cat: stdout: Broken pipe
echo: write error on stdout
echo: write error on stdout

I get this email every day. Does anyone know whats wrong and how to fix?
Thanks

johnpoz

@frankzappa do you have this set in arpwatch

"Disables Cron email notifications from other packages."

I installed arpwatch on 23.01 a few days back, and not seeing any such emails. But I have that set.

Personally I think arpwatch is pretty broken product, with nothing to do with pfsense.. There just don't seem to be a way in the application itself not to cause log spam or nonsense in the db..

It should just ignore anything from 0.0.0.0 or 169.254.x.x which you think disable bogon would do - but than it just ends up creating nonsense in your db..

And nonsense emails about such new stations.. with 0.0.0.0 or 169.254.x.x etc..

But I am not seeing those emails that you mention.. But seeing the other garbage both in the db and in emails.

Maybe its possible to fix some of this stuff in the local package of arpwatch, with how it sends emails, or logs into the database - but from the limited playing with it - this nonsense really needs to be fixed upstream.

FrankZappa

Thanks johnpoz. Oddly enough, I dint have Arpwatch installed on this version. I may have had it installed on previous version and forgot to install the package. Anyway, I installed Arpwatch and checked "Disables Cron email notifications from other packages." XO, we'll see what happens. Thanks for the tip.

jimp

That is from OS cron jobs that were unintentionally re-enabled in 23.01. We have a fix in, but you need to apply the change and reboot.

You can install the System Patches package and then apply the recommended patches and reboot and after that it should be back to how it was on previous versions.

FrankZappa

@jimp Thanks Jimp. Is there a patch number/name I'm supposed to use?

SteveITS

@frankzappa Any/all of the Recommended ones. I’m not where I can look but look for one with Cron in the title. If you don’t have a long list update your package.

stephenw10

The patch is labeled:

Disable unnecessary default FreeBSD cron jobs which can lead to increased RAM/ARC usage (Requires reboot to activate, Redmine #14016)

FrankZappa

@stephenw10 Thanks!