tldrdailynews.com logo
Tag

Kernel

All articles tagged with #kernel

technology1 day ago

Linux 7.3 Adds 120-Second EFI Timeout to Shield User-Space From Buggy Firmware

Linux 7.3 enforces a 120-second timeout on EFI runtime service calls; if the timeout expires, the firmware is wedged and the kernel reports an EFI fault rather than letting the stalled call drag down the rest of user-space. The change—driven by Breno Leitao after issues on NVIDIA Grace servers—prevents a single buggy EFI call from triggering widespread stalls, improving reliability at fleet scale, though it does not fix the firmware bug itself and simply makes EFI faults explicit in dmesg.

via Phoronix|
#efi#firmware#kernel
Windows Defender's Boot Driver Could Be Weaponized to Wipe Security Tools at Startup
technology3 days ago

Windows Defender's Boot Driver Could Be Weaponized to Wipe Security Tools at Startup

Check Point Research disclosed a technique that abuses Microsoft Defender’s built-in boot-time removal driver, BTR.sys, to perform kernel-level file and registry operations and potentially delete Defender components during boot. The driver is embedded in Defender and can be triggered with a PoC tool (BTR_CLI); it requires administrative SeLoadDriverPrivilege, but there is no evidence of real-world abuse yet. This isn’t a traditional software vulnerability but an architectural trust boundary that could be exploited, and Microsoft notes it doesn’t require immediate servicing. Defenses include restricting SeLoadDriverPrivilege and monitoring for specific Sysmon/Windows events, since BTR.sys is hard to blocklist without disrupting Defender.

via The Hacker News|
#boot-time-remediation#defender#kernel
Unisoc VoLTE Video-Call Flaw Lets Attackers Take Over Android Kernel
technology7 days ago

Unisoc VoLTE Video-Call Flaw Lets Attackers Take Over Android Kernel

Security researchers disclosed a two-stage exploit against Unisoc modem firmware that can grant an attacker full Android kernel control by triggering a VoLTE video call; the attack requires the attacker to control private 4G infrastructure and the victim to answer. The flaw stems from a shared memory space between the modem and the application processor, enabling modem code to map and modify the kernel memory. No patch from Unisoc is available yet; affected devices include Motorola E13, Realme C33, and Xiaomi Redmi A5 (with T606, T612, and T7250 modems). The vulnerability has no CVE assigned; device manufacturers should monitor for firmware updates once available.

via The Hacker News|
#android#kernel#security
technology8 days ago

Con Kolivas Reboots -ck and MuQSS to Boost Linux Desktop Responsiveness on 7.2

Con Kolivas has revived his out-of-tree -ck patchset and MuQSS scheduler with a Linux 7.2-ck1 release for the 7.2 kernel, aiming to improve desktop/mobile responsiveness and interactivity. He notes that AI/LLMs have made maintaining the patches easier, and the update adds features like I/O aware CPU scheduling, P/E-core hybrid load balancing, kthread accounting, and micro-optimizations, along with bug fixes. The patches remain out-of-tree and are not upstreamed, with benchmarks expected to gauge impact on modern hardware.

via Phoronix|
#desktop-performance#kernel#linux
technology15 days ago

Linux 7.2-rc7 Rolls Out Amid AI-Driven Week of Kernel Fixes

Linux 7.2-rc7 is out for testing with many small fixes across drivers, filesystems (notably Btrfs), memory management, and networking, plus AI-driven patches and a patch for the Safe RET Interrupt Vulnerability. Linus Torvalds says the week has been unusually busy but expects the 7.2 final near next weekend unless something major pops up; Ubuntu 26.10 is expected to default to this kernel when released.

via Phoronix|
#72#ai#btrfs
technology1 month ago

KNOD Brings GPU-Powered In-Kernel Packet Offload to AMD Hardware

Linux patches introduce KNOD, a kernel-driven in-kernel network offload that runs packet processing on AMD GPUs without user-space libraries like ROCm. The kernel manages GPU queues, JIT-compiles per-packet programs, and DMA’s packets directly into GPU memory, enabling XDP and IPsec offloads to run on the GPU with throughput scaling by GPU occupancy rather than CPU cores. Initial work targets AMD RDNA2/GCN hardware with open-source upstream drivers, and there’s discussion of broader GPU support in the future; the work is presented as RFC-style patches on the Linux kernel mailing list with LPC 2025 background available.

via Phoronix|
#amd#kernel#knod
Long-standing Linux kernel flaw lets guest VMs break out to hosts on Intel and AMD
technology1 month ago

Long-standing Linux kernel flaw lets guest VMs break out to hosts on Intel and AMD

Hyunwoo Kim disclosed CVE-2026-53359, a 16-year-old Linux kernel use-after-free in KVM/x86 shadow MMU that enables guest-to-host VM escape on both Intel and AMD CPUs. A successful exploit can grant root on the host and potentially take over all VMs on a multi-tenant machine or crash the host kernel; patch 81ccda30b4e8 was applied in June 2026. Administrators should ensure patched kernels on KVM/x86 hosts, especially in cloud environments, as the risk is real for Google Cloud and AWS users. A PoC and write-up exist, though full public exploitation is not released yet, and attackers could chain with other flaws like Dirty Frag.

via BleepingComputer|
#cloud-security#kernel#kvm
technology2 months ago

Gemini AI Speeds Up Linux Boot on ASUS ROG Strix G16 G614

An AI-assisted kernel patch (via Google Gemini 3.5) shortens a 30+ second Linux boot on the ASUS ROG Strix G16 G614 by working around a firmware quirk that asserts a GPIO line at startup; the patch is expected to be upstreamed for systems without updated BIOS, while ASUS/AMD pursue a proper firmware fix, with discussions noting the root cause may involve ACPI/graphics-related GPIO behavior rather than the touchpad alone.

via Phoronix|
#asus#boot-time#firmware
technology3 months ago

Intel's USB4STREAM Turns Thunderbolt Into a Direct Linux Data Channel

Intel is adding USB4STREAM to Linux 7.2 that lets two hosts swap raw data directly over a USB4/Thunderbolt cable via /dev/tbstreamX, bypassing the networking stack. The feature, implemented in the thunderbolt_stream driver and configurable via ConfigFS, supports multiple bidirectional streams and enables use cases like host backups, peripheral sharing, and initramfs-based recovery without network tooling.

via Phoronix|
#intel#kernel#linux