Patch Me If You Can | LINUX Unplugged 665

We dig into the Copy Fail vulnerability and test a proof-of-concept against our own box. Plus, Jon Seager, VP of Engineering at Canonical joins us, and we kick off the BSD Challenge!

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• Copy Fail — CVE-2026-31431 — "An unprivileged local user can write four controlled bytes into the page cache of any readable file on a Linux system, and use that to gain root." — Theori
• Copy Fail: 732 Bytes to Root - Xint — "A single 732-byte Python script can edit a setuid binary and obtain root on essentially all Linux distributions shipped since 2017." — Xint
• Linux Kernel Bug Explained - Jorijn — "CopyFail is more portable. One script, every distro, no offsets. Dirty Pipe needed kernel ≥ 5.8; Copy Fail covers 2017–2026." — Jorijn"Kubernetes Pod Security Standards (Restricted) and default seccomp do NOT block the syscall used." — Jorijn
• Ars: Most Severe Linux Threat in Years — "The most severe Linux threat to surface in years catches the world flat-footed." — Ars Technica
• Sysdig: CVE-2026-31431 Analysis — "The flaw was introduced in 2017 via commit 72548b093ee3, which switched AEAD operations to in-place processing." — Sysdig
• CERT-EU Advisory
• Ubuntu Security Tracker
• The Register: Crypto Flaw
• Kernel Patch (reverts 2017 optimization) — "This mostly reverts commit 72548b093ee3 except for the copying of the associated data." — Kernel Commit
• Buggy Commit: 72548b093ee3 (2017)
• DeepWiki: AF_ALG Internals
• oss-security Disclosure
• PSA + GRUB Mitigation - Jan Wildeboer
• Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) Released — "Ubuntu 26.04 LTS sets the example for providing best-in-class resilience while simultaneously embracing innovation and the advancement of open source." — Jon Seager, VP Ubuntu Engineering
• The Future of AI in Ubuntu - Jon Seager — "Throughout 2026 we'll be working on enabling access to frontier AI for Ubuntu users in a way that is deliberate, secure, and aligned with our open source values." — Jon Seager
• Ubuntu 26.04 Release Notes
• Ubuntu AI Features Throughout 2026 - Phoronix — "Canonical's approach to AI is refreshingly thoughtful — Microsoft should take note." — ZDNet
• Canonical DDoS Attack Update — "Canonical's web infrastructure is under a sustained, cross-border attack and we are working to address it." — arcticp, Canonical
• Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #942
• Canonical AI Approach - ZDNet
• 9to5Linux: Opt-In LLM Tools
• uutils/coreutils: Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils
• LINUX Unplugged 636: Engineering the Future
• LiveCD fails to start X session on QEMU · Issue #354 · ghostbsd/issues
• Monty's “rescue” drive NixOS config
• Magnolia Mayhem's BSD Challenge Report
• Pick: NASty — NASty is a NAS operating system built on NixOS and bcachefs. It turns commodity hardware into a storage appliance serving NFS, SMB, iSCSI, and NVMe-oF — managed from a single web UI, updated atomically, and rolled back when things go sideways.
• Pick: Defuse — Defuse is a GTK4 application for removing image backgrounds locally.
• Defuse on Flathub