Kernel maintainers have released new stable versions 6.19.8 and 6.18.18 LTS, which include important security and networking fixes. The 6.19.8 update improves AppArmor's reference handling to prevent use-after-free bugs and addresses networking issues that could lead to packet drops. Additionally, it resolves an ATA race condition that previously risked data corruption on SSDs after drive resets. Users can obtain the latest kernels by downloading the generic upstream tarball or updating their distribution's package, and should check AppArmor profiles for syntax errors post-update
Linux Kernels 6.19.8 and 6.18.18 LTS Released: Security Patches, Networking Fixes, and ATA Bug Fix
Kernel maintainers have released two new stable versions: 6.19.8 and 6.18.18 LTS, which address various security and networking issues. The 6.19.8 patch set tightens AppArmor's reference handling to prevent use-after-free bugs by introducing a double-refcount scheme that ensures the underlying structure is only freed after all inode references have been released. This version also resolves silent drops in packet handling due to networking quirks and stops an ATA race condition that could leave drives in an odd state after reset. Users can obtain the latest kernel by downloading the generic upstream tarball or updating their distribution's package, and should run apparmor_parser -T against each AppArmor profile to catch any syntax errors.
