Linux Kernel 6.18.3 released
The latest version of the Linux Kernel, 6.18.3, has officially arrived. It represents another solid step forward in the ongoing mission to make things smoother and safer.
This process wasn't just one person working overtime; it involved dedicated developers across the globe hammering out fixes for various parts of the system. Their collective effort resulted in a release-ready version, showcasing the collaborative nature of open-source work.
Digging deeper into what changed: there's been progress tackling some old bugs. The FUSE component experienced an issue with reference counting that was related to the handling of copied arguments via io-uring, which has now been fixed. This helps avoid potential problems where data pages could leak unexpectedly during certain operations.
Elsewhere, a commit aimed squarely at preventing system hangs (deadlocks) during readahead processes by properly managing inode references even when the underlying server doesn't explicitly 'open'. And for io-uring itself, some list corruption issues were sorted out for requests that are finished but not committed yet. This release adds needed stability to how it handles I/O.
Then there's device management and memory handling. Developers dug into MediaTek IOMMU drivers, fixing a problem called a use-after-free that occurred during probe deferral. And they touched on AMD PCI probing too, resolving reference leaks there. These tweaks refine how hardware interacts with the core system.
Zoned block devices are another area that got some attention. A suggestion was implemented to temporarily pause device queues when updating zone resources, essentially ensuring no I/O tasks in progress get mixed up or stopped short unexpectedly during maintenance work. Also for zoned storage, commits improved write pointer management after a full zone is filled, preventing future issues down the line.
Security and crypto features also saw action. An output problem specific to RISC-V crypto code was fixed, making sure things behave as expected when handling data that might not be perfectly aligned. In addition, new checks within the CAAM (Cryptographic Acceleration and Assurance Module) help spot potential buffer allocation failures before they cause crashes or errors.
And let's talk memory management: fixes were made related to leaks in Amlogic, Qualcomm, and Samsung drivers; preventing certain types of resource waste was key. Also, special handling for uninitialized memory used during crypto operations means that specific data structures get cleared properly beforehand. This simple change helps prevent a range of nasty issues from showing up later.
Linux kernel 6.18.3 released
Linux kernel version 6.18.3 is now available:
Full source: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.18.3.tar.xz
Patch: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/patch-6.18.3.xz
PGP Signature: https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.18.3.tar.sign
You can view the summary of the changes at the following URL:
https://git.kernel.org/stable/ds/v6.18.3/v6.18.2
