Articles on Linux

Top deep-dives on Linux

My business card runs Linux, yours can too

Dmitry Grinberg describes making a business card that runs Linux.

Essential Page Cache theory

"In essence the Page Cache is a part of Virtual File System (VFS) which main purpose, as you can guess, is improving IO latency of read and write operations". In this second article of a nine part series, Viacheslav Biriukov answers questions like what is, what problem does it solve, and why is it called a "Page" cache, then goes on to outline how reads and writes are handled.

Unix command line conventions over time

Lars Wirzenius outlines the history and design choices of the Unix command line options so often used today.

A System-Witch's Package Manager Murder Mystery

Artemis Everfree walks us through fixing an obscure bug related to exported env vars when running a package manager on a Linux machine.

An Ubuntu kernel bug causes container crashes

Jordan Webb explains how a misapplied patch in Ubuntu caused it to panic when Docker containers were launched.

Exploration of the Dirty Pipe Vulnerability (CVE-2022-0847)

Valentin Obst and Martin Clauß make a Linux kernel vulnerability digestible using a proof of concept program as a learning aide.

The quantum state of Linux kernel garbage collection CVE-2021-0920 (Part I)

Xingyu Jin does "a deep dive into an in-the-wild Android exploit" that is enabled by a race condition in the Linux kernel's garbage collector.

Distribution packaging for Linux desktop applications is unsustainable

Cooper Lewis explains how the traditional model of linux packaging has many issues and provides a solution in the form of Flatpak.
Some highlights:

• "Dependency hell describes how Linux systems rely on specific libraries and versions of software, and if those libraries conflict with each other, installations can fail"
• I'm continually amazed that the Linux ecosystem is not only surviving, but thriving
• "Adoption of a universal app format may noticeably accelerate the development pace of many Linux applications"

[CVE-2022-1786] A Journey To The Dawn

Kyle Zeng describes a 0-day vulnerability in the Linux kernel that they found and exploited on Google's kCTF platform. Kyle goes on to describe the process of reporting the bug and submitting the exploit.

Bringing WireGuard to Genode

Martin Stein explores implementing a WireGuard VPN on Gentoo Linux.