Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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If all kernel bugs are security bugs, how do you keep your Linux safe? (www.zdnet.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't know where you got the idea that I'm arguing that old versions don't get new vulnerabilities. I'm saying that just because a CVE exists it does not necessarily make a system immediately vulnerable, because many CVEs rely on theoretical scenarios or specific attack vectors that are not exploitable in a hardened system or that have limited impact.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

And I am saying that that information you are referring to is unknown for any given CVE unless it is unlocked by some investment of effort that usually far exceeds the effort to actually fix it and we already don't have enough resources to fix all the bugs, much less assess the impact of every bug.

Assessing the impact on the other hand is an activity that is only really useful for two things

a risk / impact assessment of an update to decide if you want to update or not
determining if you were theoretically vulnerable in the past

You could add prioritizing fixes to that list but then, as mentioned, impact assessments are usually more work than actual fixes and spending more effort prioritizing than actually fixing makes no sense.