A bug in Ubuntu 19.10 shares media contents without warning

After the final release of Ubuntu on October 17, 2019, a major bug is discovered. It shares some content without permission according to Ubuntu 19.10’s users.

New Ubuntu version, Ubuntu 19.10 which was released in October came with new features and improvements. One of these new features is Ubuntu’s new media sharing option. With this option, users can share videos, music files, photos via their local network without installing a separate DLNA server software. Also, this new media sharing feature enables a games console or web-enabled set-top box to stream music and video files from your machine.

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Anyone on the same Wi-Fi network can see all media content

Some of the users with Ubuntu 19.10 in non-GNOME Shell claim that a new media sharing feature (rygel) is running in the background without any warning. It gives access to anyone who was connected to the same Wi-Fi point to the full contents of photos, videos and music folders on the local area network.

Technically, systemd enables media sharing but that’s its expected function. The users who install the new version first time or upgrade to Ubuntu 19.10, will not be affected by this issue, because Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, make a partial fix for solving the problem. Also, the users who run Ubuntu 19.10 and use GNOME Shell may not be affected.

How to prevent media sharing without permission

To prevent media sharing without permission, head to Settings > Sharing > Media and do check that media sharing toggle is set to off. Moreover, it is also possible to uninstall rygel. If you are running a non-GNOME Shell/Ubuntu session, that is the only way to prevent media sharing of systemd on the local networks.

To uninstall rygel type the following command:

sudo apt remove rygel

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