What were the notable Linux updates?

ptrace: slightly saner 'get_dumpable()' logic, net/smc: reject CHID-0 ACCEPT that matches an empty ism_dev slot, and Merge tag 'hid-for-linus-2026051401' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/hid/hid.

Linux

The kernel, distros, and the rigs of the moment

Pick a date

Topics: Infrastructure Full archive →

The Wire · Showcase

KERNEL PATCHES PTRACE AND SMC-D VULNERABILITIES OVERNIGHT

By RepoJournal · Filed 06:02 UTC on May 15, 2026 · About Linux

The kernel shipped critical fixes for ptrace memory access logic and SMC-D network protocol flaws that could allow malicious peers to trigger DoS conditions.

Linus merged a foundational cleanup to ptrace's dumpability logic [1], removing unsafe assumptions about task memory images that have haunted the subsystem for years. The fix tightens access checks by separating concerns: dumpability now only applies when an MM context exists, preventing edge cases where ptrace was checking permissions on kernel threads that shouldn't be traced at all. This lands alongside a critical SMC-D fix [2] where slot 0 of the ISM device array could be exploited by a malicious peer sending a CHID-0 ACCEPT message against an empty slot, triggering a NULL pointer dereference. The networking stack also shipped a batch of fixes [4] addressing TCP request socket UAFs and ethtool NULL derefs that were breaking production deployments. HID layer received sanitation work [3] across multiple drivers, patching out-of-bounds reads and use-after-free conditions in device-specific handlers and core input validation. The DP83TC811 PHY driver got a much-needed abilities advertisement fix [5] so 100BaseT1 speeds are now properly reported to ethtool.

Action items

→ Rebuild with latest kernel - ptrace and SMC-D fixes are critical for networked systems torvalds/linux [immediate]
→ Test SMC-D setups with malicious peer simulation if you run storage clusters torvalds/linux [immediate]
→ Verify DP83TC811 PHY detection if running automotive or industrial ethernet torvalds/linux [plan]

References

[1] ptrace: slightly saner 'get_dumpable()' logic torvalds/linux
[2] net/smc: reject CHID-0 ACCEPT that matches an empty ism_dev slot torvalds/linux
[3] Merge tag 'hid-for-linus-2026051401' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/hid/hid torvalds/linux
[4] Merge tag 'net-7.1-rc4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net torvalds/linux
[5] net: phy: DP83TC811: add reading of abilities torvalds/linux

Quick answers

What shipped in Linux on May 15, 2026?: The kernel shipped critical fixes for ptrace memory access logic and SMC-D network protocol flaws that could allow malicious peers to trigger DoS conditions. In total, 37 commits, 5 pull requests, and 1 releases landed.
What were the notable Linux updates?: ptrace: slightly saner 'get_dumpable()' logic, net/smc: reject CHID-0 ACCEPT that matches an empty ism_dev slot, and Merge tag 'hid-for-linus-2026051401' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/hid/hid.

IO_URING FIXES AND SOCKMAP USE-AFTER-FREE PATCH LAND IN 7.2-RC

Linus merged critical io_uring corrections and a high-impact sockmap race condition fix that closes a threading vulnerability in TCP BPF message handling.

infra 83 shipped 1-min read

Linux 1 day ago

KERNEL PATCHES CLOSE NAMESPACE PRIVILEGE ESCALATION GAPS IN TUNNEL DRIVERS

Two critical fixes close a privilege escalation hole in VXLAN and GENEVE tunnel changelink operations that allowed unprivileged callers in one namespace to rewrite devices whose underlay lives elsewhere.

infra 100 shipped 1-min read

Linux 2 days ago

WATCHDOG UAF AND DIVISION-BY-ZERO FIXES LAND IN V7.2-RC5

Linus merged critical watchdog subsystem patches addressing a use-after-free vulnerability and a zero-division crash that could tank embedded systems in production.

infra 40 shipped 1-min read

Linux 3 days ago

KERNEL RC5 LANDS WITH HWMON FIXES AND KVM STABILITY PATCHES

Linux 7.2-rc5 rolls out critical hardware monitoring fixes and RISC-V virtualization patches that tighten KVM stability across multiple architectures.

infra 47 shipped 2-min read

Elsewhere on the wire

AI Agents about 9 hours ago

CLAUDE OPUS 5 LANDS ACROSS THE STACK

The newest Anthropic model is now live in langchain, Cline, and llama-index, with native support for extended reasoning and 1M context windows.

ai-agents 28 shipped 1-min read

Local LLMs about 9 hours ago

OLLAMA LANDS LAGUNA SUPPORT AND CRUSHES MEMORY LEAKS WHILE SGLANG HITS V0.5.16 WITH CONFIDENCE-DRIVEN SPECULATIVE DECODING

Ollama shipped three critical performance and reliability fixes for Metal residency and concurrent access patterns, while SGL-Lang released 0.5.16 with a new speculative algorithm hitting 383.7 tok/s on DeepSeek-V4.