Kernel on IT News

'Bad Epoll' Linux Vulnerability Gives Attackers Root Access — Android Phones Are Affected Too

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Jaeyoung Chung, a security researcher at Seoul National University, found something worrying in the Linux kernel earlier this year. The vulnerability, now tracked as CVE-2026-46242 and nicknamed “Bad Epoll,” lives in the epoll subsystem, a core piece of the Linux kernel that handles how applications respond to I/O events. It earned a CVSS score of 7.8, putting it in the high-severity bucket, and its reach extends well beyond desktop Linux.

kernel.org Went Dark for 12 Hours — a Mirror Config Was to Blame

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0800

On the evening of July 2, anyone trying to download a Linux kernel from the official website hit a wall. The latest releases returned 404 errors. Archived versions returned 403 errors. For more than half a day, kernel.org was effectively broken for its most basic function.

Linux 7.2-rc1 goes live with cache-aware scheduling, tops 43 million lines of code

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Linux 7.2-rc1 is out, and it’s the kind of release that tells you two things at once: how fast the kernel keeps growing, and where the next wave of performance work is really focused.

Linus Torvalds opened the merge window two weeks ago, closed it this weekend, and the numbers are in. The kernel now sits at over 43 million lines of code. About a third of that delta comes from a single source: AMD submitted a fresh batch of header files packed with GPU register definitions for their ever-expanding hardware lineup. The rest covers the usual ground — architecture updates, tooling improvements, and documentation.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Livepatch Brings Zero-Downtime Kernel Patching to Arm64

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:28:00 +0800

Canonical announced today that its Canonical Livepatch zero-downtime kernel hot-patching technology now supports the Arm64 architecture. For the first time, Ubuntu systems running on Arm64 processors can apply critical kernel security updates without interrupting services or requiring a reboot — a significant milestone for the rapidly expanding Arm server and edge computing ecosystem.

Microsoft Surface RT Gets Mainline Linux Kernel Driver After 14 Years

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:40:00 +0800

Fourteen years after Microsoft launched the original Surface RT in a bid to challenge Apple’s iPad, the aging ARM-powered tablet has received an unexpected revival: a mainline Linux kernel driver that brings proper battery and charging status support to the device.