Linux removes tools that cause security errors |
Linus Torvalds, the inventor of the Linux system, has announced a new kernel release (5.10), which in his opinion is one of the most important updates in kernel history.
This release aims to make the platform more powerful and easy to use than ever before, as it provides many new additions, upgrades and features to users around the world.
Before every new Linux kernel release is released, the integration window closes for two weeks and Torvalds shares his thoughts.
He drew attention to removing the addressing tool (set_fs) that was part of the original release of Linux, which means it has been around for nearly 30 years.
The consolidation window is an important part of any new kernel release process, as the patches sent out by the developer community are integrated on a daily basis. The verification process ensures that each patch can make the necessary changes.
The new kernel release marks the end of a ten-year-old job. Hence, this feature was discovered long ago to cause security vulnerabilities and thus becomes redundant.
Torvalds wrote: For me, the most interesting change is removing (set_fs) and adding that it's not a big change, but it's very interesting. Because the complete model of the tool is almost back to the original Linux version.
This addressing tool can be used to cover address space and has been used extensively during early processors (Intel x86) management to control the standard address range that can be accessed through an unlabeled code.
The CVE 2010 dictionary contains detailed information about the security issues encountered when processing the tools.
By bypassing some access restrictions, it was found that the tool can gain permissions and in some cases allow room for the user to overwrite kernel data.
Keeping in mind the tool's security vulnerabilities, architectures like (x86), (powerpc), (s390) and (RISC-V) removed the address space instead.
Building on this long-awaited historical patch, version 5.10, like most kernel releases, contains additional changes.
Torvalds has performed nearly 14,000 repairs, from Nvidia support for Autonomous Cars and Robotics (SOCs) to support for the Nintendo Switch platform.
The report contains nearly 704,000 lines of new code, and 419,000 lines have been removed, making kernel version 5.10 the same size as Linux kernel version 5.8.
On the regular Linux schedule, there are now several weeks of bug fixes, and several candidate releases are expected to be released before the stable kernel release in December.