Linux Kernel 6.14 significantly enhances security, performance, and hardware support. Compared to the previous updates, Linus Torvalds has described this as a “tiny” release; still, it comes with half a million lines of code changes and over ten thousand commits, labeling this as one of the critical updates for developers, system administrators, and people who use Linux.

In today’s threat landscape, you’re at risk if you don’t have all your identities—human and machine—secured with the right level of intelligent privilege controls. And the risk is even more significant when identities and privileges on your mission-critical Linux servers, especially those that run critical workloads or have sensitive data, are managed in silos, separately from the rest of the infrastructure.

The eBPF dataplane differs from traditional Linux dataplane in many ways, with its structure largely dictated by the location of the so-called eBPF hooks inside the kernel – locations where developers can inject their eBPF programs to change default kernel behavior.

IP forwarding in Linux is a feature that allows a system to route packets between network interfaces, effectively functioning as a router. While this capability is essential for specific network setups, it poses security risks if enabled unnecessarily. Disabling IP forwarding is a critical step in server hardening, particularly for systems not intended to perform routing tasks.

The GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is a program that facilitates graphical user login for Linux systems using GNOME, running and managing the X.Org display servers for both local and remote logins. The GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is the login graphical user interface (GUI) and manager for the GNOME desktop environment within Linux. GDM runs in the background and is a replacement for X Display Manager (XDM), handling user authentication, and initiating desktop sessions.

Repo_GPGcheck ensures linux verifies the authenticity of software packages downloaded from repositories, reinforcing overall system security and safeguarding against unauthorized software sources. A repository in Linux is a storage location where software packages are managed and organized. When installing or updating software, Redhat based Linux systems pull the required packages from these repositories using the YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) package manager.

Linux distributions come with Discretionary Access Control (DAC) preinstalled in them. A sudo user is usually created in a Linux system to work at root-level privileges. DAC system provides the sudo user with all the administrator rights which may be a security threat if the sudo user is not trustworthy. SELinux is a Mandatory Access Control (MAC) system that replaced traditional DAC systems in modern Linux OS. SELinux allows the system admins to have more control over who can access the system.