linux-2.6.16.27

[Matthew Burgess]

2.6.16.27 is now out, fixing a DoS vulnerability in the USB serial driver and some other bug fixes. Announcement at ​http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0607.2/0199.html. I'm nominating this for 6.2 as it fixes a security vulnerability. If it's decided that it's too late in the day for new upstream versions to go in then at least we need an errata entry to let folks know about the vulnerability.

[bdubbs@…]

Its not too late for 6.2 as there will be a -pre2 Wednesday or Thursday, however we have to accept the fact that there will be these types of things after the release.

[alexander@…]

Why not say in the book (Chapter 3) something like this:

The latest available 2.6.16.x (but not 2.6.17.x or even later) kernel version should be used, unless the errata page says otherwise. The reason for such imprecise version specification is security vulnerabilities frequently found in linux kernels, and potential incompatibilites of the bootscripts with 2.6.17 or later kernels. At the time of this writing, this means that you should use linux-2.6.16.27 (URL, MD5).

[randy@…]

I personally like everything Alexander wrote, except the last sentence. That sentence will be obsolete in a week, so why even bother? All the other text tells everyong *exactly* what to do, why throw in something so imprecise?

Additionally, everyone will already know which kernel is the one "at the time of this writing", as it will be the one shown in the book.

[alexander@…]

Thel last sentence is needed only in order to save ourselves from the XML problem: the kernel version is mentioned in several other places in the book, and jhalfs has to work. If we just mention 2.6.16, jhalfs will build a non-working system because we rely on the network interface race fix in 2.6.16.10.

Alternative proposals are welcome.

[bdubbs@…]

Fixed at revision 7693.

Added a note to use the most recent 2.6.16.x kernel.