New security stuff in the Linux 6.17

4 slashben 1 9/16/2025, 7:16:14 PM armosec.io ↗

Comments (1)

slashben · 3h ago
I wrote up a summary of the major security changes coming in the upcoming Linux 6.17 kernel release. Highlights include:

Attack Vector Controls: a new framework to manage CPU vulnerability mitigations by attack vector class rather than per-mitigation toggles

Refined Spectre/SRSO mitigations

Rust integration now built with the same speculative execution defenses as C code

SELinux gets a neversaudit flag and a 5-second delay on a deprecated sysfs interface

Lockdown LSM has active maintainers again

AppArmor can now mediate AF_UNIX sockets with fine-grained rules

Kernel stack erasing improvements for better memory safety

Full post here: https://www.armosec.io/blog/linux-6-17-security-features/

Curious what the HN crowd thinks — do these changes make Linux more secure in practice? Any hidden trade-offs or regressions people have seen testing 6.17-rc?