665: Patch Me If You Can
3 May 2026
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!
Guests
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Episode Links
- π₯ Gets Sats Quick and Easy with Strike
- π» LINUX Unplugged on Fountain.FM
- Copy Fail β CVE-2026-31431 β “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.” β Theori
- Copy Fail: 732 Bytes to Root - Xint β “A single 732-byte Python script can edit a setuid binary and obtain root on essentially all Linux distributions shipped since 2017.” β Xint
- Linux Kernel Bug Explained - Jorijn β “CopyFail is more portable. One script, every distro, no offsets. Dirty Pipe needed kernel β₯ 5.8; Copy Fail covers 2017β2026.” β Jorijn"Kubernetes Pod Security Standards (Restricted) and default seccomp do NOT block the syscall used." β Jorijn
- Ars: Most Severe Linux Threat in Years β “The most severe Linux threat to surface in years catches the world flat-footed.” β Ars Technica
- Sysdig: CVE-2026-31431 Analysis β “The flaw was introduced in 2017 via commit 72548b093ee3, which switched AEAD operations to in-place processing.” β Sysdig
- CERT-EU Advisory
- Ubuntu Security Tracker
- The Register: Crypto Flaw
- Kernel Patch (reverts 2017 optimization) β “This mostly reverts commit 72548b093ee3 except for the copying of the associated data.” β 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 β “Ubuntu 26.04 LTS sets the example for providing best-in-class resilience while simultaneously embracing innovation and the advancement of open source.” β Jon Seager, VP Ubuntu Engineering
- The Future of AI in Ubuntu - Jon Seager β “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.” β Jon Seager
- Ubuntu 26.04 Release Notes
- Ubuntu AI Features Throughout 2026 - Phoronix β “Canonical’s approach to AI is refreshingly thoughtful β Microsoft should take note.” β ZDNet
- Canonical DDoS Attack Update β “Canonical’s web infrastructure is under a sustained, cross-border attack and we are working to address it.” β 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 Β· Issue #354 Β· ghostbsd/issues
- Monty’s βrescueβ drive NixOS config
- Magnolia Mayhem’s BSD Challenge Report
- Pick: NASty β 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 β managed from a single web UI, updated atomically, and rolled back when things go sideways.
- Pick: Defuse β Defuse is a GTK4 application for removing image backgrounds locally.
- Defuse on Flathub
Sponsors
Nebula Meet Managed Nebula from Defined Networking. A decentralized VPN built on the open-source Nebula platform that we love.
Jupiter Signal Network Membership Put your support on automatic with our annual plan, and get one month of membership for free!