diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index ac9e08823c5..1314b5f3248 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -231,6 +231,8 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v8.8.1\...main[Check the HEAD diff]
 - When running under Elastic-Agent Kafka output allows dynamic topic in `topic` field {pull}40415[40415]
 - The script processor has a new configuration option that only uses the cached javascript sessions and prevents the creation of new javascript sessions.
 - Update to Go 1.22.7. {pull}41018[41018]
+- Replace Ubuntu 20.04 with 24.04 for Docker base images {issue}40743[40743] {pull}40942[40942]
+
 
 *Auditbeat*
 
diff --git a/dev-tools/packaging/packages.yml b/dev-tools/packaging/packages.yml
index 8c22acc9dba..1391368cf0b 100644
--- a/dev-tools/packaging/packages.yml
+++ b/dev-tools/packaging/packages.yml
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ shared:
   - &docker_spec
     <<: *binary_spec
     extra_vars:
-      from: '--platform=linux/amd64 ubuntu:20.04'
+      from: '--platform=linux/amd64 ubuntu:24.04'
       buildFrom: '--platform=linux/amd64 cgr.dev/chainguard/wolfi-base'
       user: '{{ .BeatName }}'
       linux_capabilities: ''
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@ shared:
   - &docker_arm_spec
     <<: *docker_spec
     extra_vars:
-      from: '--platform=linux/arm64 ubuntu:20.04'
+      from: '--platform=linux/arm64 ubuntu:24.04'
       buildFrom: '--platform=linux/arm64 cgr.dev/chainguard/wolfi-base'
 
   - &docker_ubi_spec
diff --git a/dev-tools/packaging/templates/docker/Dockerfile.tmpl b/dev-tools/packaging/templates/docker/Dockerfile.tmpl
index f8848640079..85904ffe5dd 100644
--- a/dev-tools/packaging/templates/docker/Dockerfile.tmpl
+++ b/dev-tools/packaging/templates/docker/Dockerfile.tmpl
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ RUN for iter in {1..10}; do \
 {{- end }}
 
 {{- if contains .from "ubuntu" }}
+RUN touch /var/mail/ubuntu && chown ubuntu /var/mail/ubuntu && userdel -r ubuntu
+
 RUN for iter in {1..10}; do \
         apt-get update -y && \
         DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install --no-install-recommends --yes ca-certificates curl gawk libcap2-bin xz-utils && \