Daily update · Oct 23, 2026
Linux mainline pulls: pstore, seccomp, hardening, and net updates
A mix of crash-log robustness, seccomp notification fixes, safer kernel helper APIs, and a broad networking merge.
In brief
This batch of mainline pulls includes pstore fixes for persistent-RAM error handling, seccomp updates for notification and descriptor passing, hardening and string-helper API improvements, and a large networking merge of deferred driver fixes. There is also a minor execve selftest reporting adjustment.
Subsystem updates
pstore persistent-RAM robustness fixes
pstore stores crash and panic records; ramoops keeps them in persistent RAM. This merge cleans up error handling by avoiding an ERR_PTR in the zone pointer, rejects persistent RAM zones too small for the buffer header, and publishes big_oops_buf only after max_compressed_size is known.
Why it matters: Reduces the chance of leaving a dangling error pointer in ramoops and makes undersized persistent-RAM zones fail early.
seccomp notification and file descriptor passing fixes
seccomp's addfd operation now allows transferring O_PATH descriptors, and interrupted unreceived notifications can be restarted. A separate fix corrects SECCOMP_ADDFD_FLAG_SEND behavior when a notification is interrupted.
Why it matters: Container and sandbox supervisors using seccomp's user-notification mechanism get more correct handling for special file descriptors and signal interruptions.
execve selftest reports skipped test on stderr
The binfmt_misc_bpf selftest now reports its skipped status on stderr rather than just stdout, making CI logs clearer.
Why it matters: Kernel developers running the execve selftests will be able to see why that test was skipped.
hardening and helper API improvements
This merge adds a devm_kmalloc() variant using kmalloc_obj-style type checking, improves seq_buf string handling with several related bug fixes, and makes overflow helpers more readable.
Why it matters: Kernel code can use safer device-managed allocations and a more robust API for building strings; this is primarily an internal maintainability and safety change.
net-next merge with deferred NIC driver fixes
The net-next pull bundles networking stack and driver updates, described as including many low-priority fixes, especially in NIC drivers, deferred from the previous cycle.
Why it matters: Networking drivers and core code receive a broad cleanup and bug-fix batch; specifics are too numerous to list from the merge commit alone.
Source commits2384 entries +
Merge tag 'pstore-v7.4-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kees/linux
Linus Torvalds · Oct 23, 2026
Merge tag 'seccomp-v7.4-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kees/linux
Linus Torvalds · Oct 23, 2026
Merge tag 'execve-v7.4-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kees/linux
Linus Torvalds · Oct 23, 2026
Merge tag 'hardening-v7.4-rc1' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kees/linux
Linus Torvalds · Oct 23, 2026
Merge tag 'net-next-7.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next
Linus Torvalds · Oct 23, 2026