Latest threat reports & articles

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/29/2026, 2:29:18 PM

[$] A loadable crypto module for FIPS certification Many organizations require US Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) certification of the crypto code they are running. The certification process is lengthy, but the bigger problem is that the way the crypto subsystem is built into the kernel makes the result unable to be reused across kernel updates. I have proposed a patch series that decouples the crypto subsystem into a standalone loadable module, allowing a cer…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/29/2026, 2:09:30 PM

Nesbitt: Protestware for coding agents Andrew Nesbitt has written a blog post detailing a recent incident with the jqwik library for property-based testing in Java. On May 25, the 1.10.0 release of jqwik included a change that attempts to instruct coding agents to disregard previous instructions and delete jqwik tests and code. I think this is a new class of supply-chain input worth keeping an eye on, mostly because of how little of the existing tooling has any opinion …

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/29/2026, 1:12:08 PM

Security updates for Friday Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (.NET 8.0, .NET 9.0, cockpit, firefox, flatpak, httpd, kernel, and kernel-rt), Debian (kernel, kitty, lemonldap-ng, nagios4, python-flask-httpauth, and roundcube), Fedora (CImg, gmic, haveged, jpegxl, kernel, libpng, mapserver, mingw-qt6-qtsvg, openbao, perl-Sereal, perl-Sereal-Decoder, perl-Sereal-Encoder, and podofo), Mageia (bind, graphicsmagick, microcode, nginx, packages, perl-Catalyst-Plugin-Aut…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/28/2026, 10:16:27 PM

Rust 1.96.0 released Version 1.96.0 of the Rust programming language has been released. Changes include a new set of Copy -implementing Range types, assertions with pattern matching, a number of stabilized APIs, and two Cargo vulnerability fixes. Rust 1.96.0 released [LWN.net] LWN .net News from the source Content Weekly Edition Archives Search Kernel Security Events calendar Unread comments LWN FAQ Write for us User: Password: | | Log in / Subscribe / Register Rust 1.96.0 …

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/28/2026, 5:58:12 PM

Górny: why Gentoo? Gentoo developer Michał Górny has written a lengthy article explaining the philosophy and purpose of the Gentoo Linux distribution, in response to a thread on Mastodon : Gentoo is a source-first distribution, which means the primary method of installing software is to build it from source. Of course, that doesn't mean manually building stuff, following some kind of how-to: finding all the dependencies, installing them manually, going through a series of ma…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/28/2026, 2:29:19 PM

[$] Policies for merging new filesystems In a filesystem-track session at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit , Amir Goldstein wanted to discuss his proposed documentation on adding new filesystems to the kernel. There are a number of unmaintained and untestable filesystems already in the kernel, which are a burden to VFS-layer developers who are trying to make sweeping changes, such as switching to folios and the "new" mount API. Goldstein'…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/28/2026, 1:30:09 PM

IBM's "Project Lightwell" IBM has sent out a press release touting a claimed $5 billion investment into an operation called Project Lightwell: Project Lightwell will establish a trusted enterprise clearinghouse combined with a global force of engineers to identify and fix vulnerabilities at scale. The clearinghouse will serve as a security coordination layer, using advanced AI capabilities to validate and test fixes across an unprecedented volume of open source code. Th…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/21/2026, 2:27:57 AM

[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for May 21, 2026 Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition: Front : OpenSUSE site age restrictions; Lots of LSFMM+BPF coverage; The tenth OpenPGP email summit. Briefs : Firefox 151.0; pgBackRest funding; RIP Peter G. Neumann; Quotes; ... Announcements : Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/20/2026, 1:14:51 PM

[$] What is to be done about MGLRU? "Reclaim" is the task of finding memory that can be taken away from its current user and put to better uses within the system; it is a core part of the memory-management picture. The addition of the multi-generational LRU (MGLRU) was meant to provide a better reclaim implementation than the "traditional LRU" that preceded it, but MGLRU has complicated the situation instead. No fewer than three memory-management-track sessions at the 2026 L…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/20/2026, 1:04:17 PM

Security updates for Wednesday Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (kernel, libpng, nginx, nginx:1.24, ruby, and ruby:3.3), Debian (gnutls28 and linux-6.1), Fedora (dnsmasq, kernel, keylime-agent-rust, perl-Net-CIDR-Lite, python-pysam, python-urllib3, rust-cargo-vendor-filterer, rust-ingredients, rust-oo7-cli, rust-rpki, rust-sevctl, and rust-tealdeer), Mageia (bind), Oracle (bind, giflib, gimp:2.8, kernel, libpng, rsync, ruby, and vim), Slackware (haveged and moz…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/20/2026, 11:00:15 AM

[$] The tenth OpenPGP email summit The OpenPGP Email Summit is an annual meeting for those who work on encrypted email and related topics. The tenth installment of this meeting took place in March 2026 and the minutes have now been published. As usual, a wide range of topics were discussed. Highlights included support for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) with multiple actors planning rollouts within this year, a promising new approach for making email signatures ubiquitous wi…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/19/2026, 4:10:38 PM

Firefox 151.0 released Version 151.0 of the Firefox browser has been released. Significant changes include the ability to clear and restart a private-browsing session, better fingerprinting protection, control over the apparent location when using the Firefox VPN, and more. Firefox 151.0 released [LWN.net] LWN .net News from the source Content Weekly Edition Archives Search Kernel Security Events calendar Unread comments LWN FAQ Write for us User: Password: | | Log in / Sub…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/19/2026, 3:27:08 PM

[$] openSUSE "terms of site" raise complaints about age restrictions Many people in the Linux community began using the operating system—and contributing to open source—at a tender age, often well before their 16th birthday. Thus, a recent change in openSUSE's terms of site (ToS) that required users of the project's web site to be " at least 16 years of age or the age of majority " in their jurisdiction has raised objections. The terms have since been modified, t…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/19/2026, 2:30:40 PM

[$] In search of faster this_cpu operations The kernel's this_cpu operations are meant to speed access to per-CPU variables. They are more optimal on some CPUs than others, though. During a memory-management-track session at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit , Yang Shi proposed a fundamental, and somewhat controversial, change to how these operations work in order to provide better performance on a wider range of architectures.

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/19/2026, 2:15:48 PM

[$] What's brewing in CXL Compute Express Link (CXL) is a technology intended to enable the provision of "memory nodes" in data centers that provide (possibly shared) memory to nearby CPUs. It has, Dan Williams said at the beginning of his memory-management-track session on the topic at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit , " been making memory-management problems worse since 2021 ". He used the session to provide an overview of the ways in …

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/19/2026, 1:27:28 PM

[$] Improving the per-CPU memory allocator There are many places in the kernel where performance can be improved by using per-CPU data. But, as it turns out, the kernel's allocator for per-CPU data has some performance problems of its own. Harry Yoo led a session in the memory-management track of the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit to explore ways to address those problems and accelerate the allocation and initialization of per-CPU data.

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/19/2026, 1:24:00 PM

Security updates for Tuesday Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (libpng and nginx), Debian (erlang, netatalk, and nginx), Fedora (mod_md and SDL2_image), Mageia (perl-libwww-perl, perl-HTTP-Message, perl-WWW-Mechanize-Cached, perl-File-XDG, perl-Path-Tiny, perl-YAML-Syck, postgresql15, and rclone), SUSE (agama, alloy, cacti, cloud-init, dnsmasq, emacs, firefox, glibc, go1.25, go1.26, google-cloud-sap-agent, google-guest-agent, ibus-rime, librime, imagemagick, ker…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/19/2026, 12:05:42 PM

pgBackRest will continue In April, David Steele, maintainer of the popular pgBackRest backup and restore project for PostgreSQL, announced that he had archived the project and it would no longer be maintained due to lack of sponsorship. On May 18, he announced that a number of sponsors have stepped forward to ensure its continued development: Over the last few weeks, a coalition of sponsors has come together to fund ongoing development. Their support means the project i…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/18/2026, 1:16:04 PM

[$] Swap tables, flash-friendly swap, swap_ops, and more The kernel's swap subsystem is charged with managing anonymous pages in secondary storage when those pages are (hopefully) not being used and the memory they occupy is needed elsewhere. This long-unloved subsystem has seen a resurgence of developer interest in recent times, so it is not surprising that it was the topic of three separate sessions in the memory-management track at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memo…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/18/2026, 12:59:35 PM

Security updates for Monday Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (freerdp, gimp:2.8, jq, kernel, and rsync), Debian (chromium, ffmpeg, firewalld, kernel, nginx, openjpeg2, openssh, php7.4, and redis), Fedora (apptainer, chromium, coturn, dnsmasq, firefox, kernel, libgit2_1.8, libmetal, nginx, nginx-mod-brotli, nginx-mod-fancyindex, nginx-mod-headers-more, nginx-mod-js-challenge, nginx-mod-modsecurity, nginx-mod-naxsi, nginx-mod-vts, open-amp, perl-Net-CIDR-Lite, pg…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/17/2026, 9:39:26 PM

Kernel prepatch 7.1-rc4 The 7.1-rc4 kernel prepatch is out for testing. Some of the documentation updates might be worth highlighting: the continued flood of AI reports has basically made the security list almost entirely unmanageable, with enormous duplication due to different people finding the same things with the same tools. People spend all their time just forwarding things to the right people or saying "that was already fixed a week/month ago" and pointing to the publi…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/17/2026, 7:36:06 PM

RIP Peter G. Neumann We have received word that Peter G. Neumann, who, among many other things, ran the RISKS Digest for decades, has passed away. He will be much missed. Update : the New York Times has published an obituary of Dr. Neumann. RIP Peter G. Neumann [LWN.net] LWN .net News from the source Content Weekly Edition Archives Search Kernel Security Events calendar Unread comments LWN FAQ Write for us User: Password: | | Log in / Subscribe / Register RIP Peter G. Neuma…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/17/2026, 5:43:12 PM

Some weekend stable kernel updates The 7.0.9 , 6.18.32 , 6.12.90 , and 6.6.140 stable kernels have been released. Each contains yet another set of important fixes. Some weekend stable kernel updates [LWN.net] LWN .net News from the source Content Weekly Edition Archives Search Kernel Security Events calendar Unread comments LWN FAQ Write for us User: Password: | | Log in / Subscribe / Register Some weekend stable kernel updates [Posted May 17, 2026 by corbet] The 7.0.9 , 6.…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/15/2026, 2:54:56 PM

[$] Controlling memory-management with BPF Roman Gushchin began his session in the memory-management track of the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit by saying that the community has seen a lot of proposals adding BPF-based interfaces for memory management. None of them have made their way into the mainline, though. He wanted to explore the ways in which BPF might be helpful and the obstacles that have kept BPF-based solutions out so far. This s…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/15/2026, 1:34:24 PM

Seven new stable kernels with patches for CVE-2026-46333 Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the 7.0.8 , 6.18.31 , 6.12.89 , 6.6.139 , 6.1.173 , 5.15.207 , and 5.10.256 stable kernels. These kernels contain a patch for CVE-2026-46333 a vulnerability reported by the Qualys Security Advisory team , though Jann Horn proposed a patch in 2020. The vulnerability has a proof-of-concept exploit published already. Some of the kernels have additional patches for other bugs; as always, us…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/15/2026, 1:27:42 PM

[$] HugeTLB preservation over live update Recent times have seen a lot of effort put into the implementation of the kexec handover and live update orchestrator features in the Linux kernel. But that work is not yet complete. At the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit , Pratyush Yadav led a memory-management-track session on adding the ability to preserve hugetlbfs -provided memory during the live-update process.

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/15/2026, 1:16:03 PM

Security updates for Friday Security updates have been issued by Debian (ffmpeg, gsasl, nodejs, postgresql-15, postgresql-17, python3.9, and thunderbird), Fedora (expat, firefox, freerdp, GitPython, kernel, php, rust-podman-sequoia, rust-rpm-sequoia, rust-sequoia-chameleon-gnupg, rust-sequoia-git, rust-sequoia-keystore-server, rust-sequoia-octopus-librnp, rust-sequoia-openpgp, rust-sequoia-sop, rust-sequoia-sq, and rust-sequoia-sqv), Mageia (awstats, libreoffice, perl-HTTP-T…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/14/2026, 7:02:35 PM

[$] Policy groups for memory management The kernel's control-group subsystem works well for resource management, Chris Li said at the beginning of his memory-management-track session at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit . Control groups work less well for other use cases, though. He was there to present his proposed enhancement, called "policy groups", that would address some of the shortcomings that he has encountered. A consensus on how …

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/14/2026, 2:54:26 PM

[$] Buffered atomic writes, writethrough, and more In back-to-back sessions at the start of the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (which spilled over into a third slot), the atomic-buffered-writes feature was discussed. In the first session, Pankaj Raghav and Andres Freund set the stage with an introduction to the problem, along with a use case for its solution: the PostgreSQL database system. In the second, Ojaswin Mujoo described a potential…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/14/2026, 2:44:32 PM

Three stable kernels for Thursday Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 7.0.7 , 6.18.30 , and 6.12.88 stable kernels. These kernels do not include a patch for the Fragnesia local-privilege-escalation exploit that came to light on May 13, but do include many other important fixes throughout the tree. Users are, as always, advised to upgrade. Three stable kernels for Thursday [LWN.net] LWN .net News from the source Content Weekly Edition Archives Search Ker…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/14/2026, 1:14:30 PM

[$] Keeping COWs in context (a.k.a. anonymous reverse mapping) The kernel's reverse-mapping machinery is charged with locating the page-table entries that refer to a given page in memory. The reverse mapping of anonymous pages is handled differently than for file-backed pages. The kernel's implementation of reverse mapping for anonymous pages is, according to Lorenzo Stoakes in his proposal for a memory-management-track session at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory M…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/14/2026, 1:09:38 PM

Security updates for Thursday Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (gimp, jq, and yggdrasil), Debian (nghttp2 and thunderbird), Fedora (chromium, firefox, freerdp, GitPython, kernel, kernel-headers, krb5, nano, nix, nodejs20, php, python-click, python-django5, SDL2_image, and xen), Mageia (dnsmasq, flatpak, kernel, kmod-virtualbox, kernel-linus, perl-Net-CIDR-Lite, perl-XML-LibXML, and redis), SUSE (dnsmasq, firefox, jupyter-jupyterlab, kernel, krb5, libvinylapi3, …

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/14/2026, 1:04:18 AM

[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for May 14, 2026 Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition: Front : Fedora AI; Forgejo "carrot" disclosure; memory-management maintainership; huge THPs; mshare; 64KB base pages; DAMON; direct map. Briefs : Dirty Frag; Fragnesia; Mythos and curl; killswitch; Debian reproducible builds; KDE investment; Quotes ... Announcements : Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/13/2026, 4:05:26 PM

[$] Friction in Fedora over AI developer desktop initiative A push by Red Hat employees to create a Fedora "AI Developer Desktop" with support for out-of-tree kernel drivers and AI toolkits has been met with objections from some long-time members of the Fedora community. After more than a month of sometimes heated discussion, the Fedora Council had voted to approve the initiative; however, a last-minute change to vote against the proposal by council member Justin Wheeler has…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/13/2026, 3:26:20 PM

Yet another Dirty Frag type vulnerability: Fragnesia Sam James has sent an announcement to the OSS Security mailing list about another local-privilege-escalation (LPE) exploit in the same class as Dirty Frag , called "Fragnesia". From the disclosure : This is a separate bug in the ESP/XFRM from dirtyfrag which has received its own patch. However, it is in the same surface and the mitigation is the same as for dirtyfrag. It abuses a logic bug in the Linux XFRM ESP-in-TCP subs…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/13/2026, 2:20:00 PM

[$] Managing pages outside of the direct map When Brendan Jackman proposed a session for the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit , his topic was " a pagetable library for the kernel ". During the actual memory-management-track session, though, he stated that the idea had " fizzled " and he was going to cover related topics instead. What resulted was a session on ways to efficiently manage pages that are not present in the kernel's direct map.

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/13/2026, 1:19:22 PM

[$] Revisiting mshare Linux can share memory between processes, but each process (almost always) has its own set of page tables. In situations where vast numbers of processes are sharing a memory region, the combined size of the page tables can exceed that of the shared memory itself. There has, thus, long been an interest in enabling unrelated processes to share page tables referring to shared memory. Anthony Yznaga is the latest developer to try to push this idea (known as…

lwn_kernel · tlp:amber · 5/13/2026, 1:17:03 PM

Security updates for Wednesday Security updates have been issued by AlmaLinux (corosync, freerdp, git-lfs, glib2, jq, kernel-rt, krb5, libpng, libtiff, openexr, and thunderbird), Debian (exim4), Mageia (apache, perl-Gazelle, php, and sed), Slackware (expat), SUSE (assimp-devel, go1.26, libQt6Svg6, python-jupyterlab, raylib, thunderbird, tor, and trivy), and Ubuntu (exim4). Security updates for Wednesday [LWN.net] LWN .net News from the source Content Weekly Edition Archives…