Home / ubuntu / Questions / 705218
In Process
Naftuli Kay
Asked: 2015-12-03 13:36:35 +0800 CST

Kernel live-patching in kernel 4?

  • 772

According to Linux 4 release documentation, live-patching of kernel code is now possible in Linux 4.

Does Ubuntu 15.10 Wily support these live in-RAM patches without rebooting? Do I need to do anything to get this functionality?

security

3 Answers

  1. Correct, 15.10 contained the plumbing in the kernel, however generating the patches was left as a tricky bit.

    But, good news, This is now available as a service from Canonical in Ubuntu 16.04:

    There is a free tier as well.

    • 3

  2. From what I can tell, this feature is not supported in 15.10.

    In the Linux 4 release documentation, it states that "livepatch is not feature complete". Ubuntu 15.10 is at kernel 4.2 now, but I don't see any items about livepatch in the Linux 4.1 release documentation or the merge window notes for 4.2 or 4.3.

    • 1

  3. I asked this question at SCALE. Live kernel patching isn't going to be here in 16.04, probably not in 16.10 but maybe in 17.04 according to what the presenters said.

    • 0