Linux kernel security vulnerabilities are often in the headlines. Recently it was revealed a serious kernel vulnerability remained undiscovered for over a decade. But, what does this mean in a practical sense? Why is security of the Linux kernel important? And, what effects do vulnerabilities have on older or obsolete kernels that are persistent in many devices?
The discovery of a somewhat alarming bug in the Linux ext4 filesystem provoked a minor wave of panic this week, but project maintainer Theodore Ts'o says it has since become clear that the problem can likely only affect a small number of users.
Version 2.6.38 of the Linux kernel was released by Linus Torvalds overnight, including the much-hyped performance improvement patch amid many feature enhancements and bug fixes.
Linux kernel 2.6.36 has been released by Linus Torvalds and includes a number of performance and security enhancements, including integration of the AppArmor access control system.
A new version of the Linux kernel, 2.6.34, has been released by Linus Torvalds featuring two new file systems and a number of updates to virtualisation and device driver code.
Less than a week after Linux kernel 2.6.31 was released, the kernel developers are beginning to submit changes and improvements across virtualization, power management, file systems and device driver code for the upcoming 2.6.32 version.