Linux Kernel: Critical Security and Stability Fixes in RC4
Linux 7.1-rc4 was released with 10 commits addressing critical issues including IRQ handling fixes, RISC-V security improvements, and x86 boot crash prevention. The release focuses on stability fixes across multiple architectures with particular attention to memory safety and interrupt handling.
Duration: PT2M3S
Transcript
Good morning. This is your Linux Kernel briefing for May 18th, 2026.
There were no merged pull requests today, but Linus Torvalds integrated 10 significant commits into the 7.1-rc4 release, focusing primarily on critical fixes across multiple subsystems.
The most substantial update addresses IRQ handling vulnerabilities. Ingo Molnar's IRQ urgent fixes resolve a use-after-free bug in irq_work_single on PREEMPT_RT systems and correct interrupt randomness handling for NMIs. Additional fixes target specific chipset drivers including GICv5, RISC-V IMSIC, and Meson S4 SoC interrupt controllers.
Paul Walmsley's RISC-V updates implement important security changes. The kernel now disables delegation of misaligned access faults to kernel space by default, requiring explicit configuration to enable this functionality. The update also reduces CFI shadow stack limits from 4GB to 2GB, following ARM64 standards, and fixes several memory corruption issues in error handling paths.
Architecture-specific fixes include David Woodhouse's resolution of x86 boot crashes in non-kjump kexec scenarios and Mark Rutland's ARM64 rseq regression fixes. The hardware monitoring subsystem received stability improvements with enhanced locking protection and null pointer checks.
Carlos López contributed a critical fix for the SEV-Guest virtualization driver, preventing potential page allocator corruption when the host provides invalid buffer lengths during certificate blob retrieval.
Looking ahead: kernel 7.1 is progressing toward final release with focus remaining on stability fixes. The development cycle continues to prioritize memory safety and interrupt handling robustness across all supported architectures.
That's your Linux Kernel update for today.