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A detailed analysis of a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's epoll subsystem, fixed by switching to RCU, and the author's failed attempts at exploiting it on a modern device.
Qualys discloses a logic bug in the Linux kernel's __ptrace_may_access() function (CVE-2026-46333), allowing local privilege escalation and information disclosure. The vulnerability, present since 2016, affects multiple distributions with four proof-of-concept exploits developed by Qualys.
This article covers recent improvements and future plans for the Linux kernel's swap subsystem, including reduced per-page overhead, folio-based helpers, and efforts to make swapping more friendly to solid-state storage, as discussed at the 2026 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit.
Hanno Böck discusses recent kernel exploits affecting the ESP (IPSEC) module and suggests disabling IPSEC-related kernel config options to reduce attack surface, highlighting how many unused kernel modules are loaded by default.
Cloudflare details a bug in their QUIC implementation, quiche, where a Linux kernel optimization for CUBIC congestion control caused performance issues, and describes the resulting fix.
The article details a method to replace Bash's Ctrl-R history search using a custom tool, adapting to recent Linux kernel security changes that restrict TIOCSTI usage.
A new Linux kernel patch proposes a 'killswitch' primitive that allows admins to immediately disable vulnerable kernel functions (e.g., af_alg_sendmsg) by making them return -EPERM, providing a rapid temporary mitigation for security issues without requiring a reboot or kernel rebuild.
CVE-2026-31431 (Copy Fail) is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Linux kernel affecting all major distributions since 2017, allowing unprivileged users to gain root shell access through a deterministic 4-byte write to any readable file's page cache via the AF_ALG crypto subsystem.
A local privilege escalation exploit in the Linux kernel's io_uring subsystem via a zero-copy receive freelist bug.
Copy Fail 2 is a proof-of-concept exploit for an unprivileged Linux Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) vulnerability in the kernel's xfrm subsystem, allowing attackers to gain root access on modern distributions.
Linux kernel maintainers are removing unmaintained networking and amateur-radio subsystems to cope with the flood of AI-generated security reports overwhelming review bandwidth.
Paul McKenney discusses unconventional and corner-case RCU (Read-Copy-Update) implementations, including timed-wait RCU approaches used in early Unix systems and fixed-buffer RCU concepts related to memory quarantining, illustrating creative but potentially dangerous synchronization techniques in kernel development.