kernel.org is the main distribution point of source code for the
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...
, which is the base of the
Linux operating system.
Website
The
website and related infrastructure, which are operated by the Linux Kernel Organization, host the
repositories that make all versions of the kernel's source code available to all users. The main purpose of kernel.org is to host repositories used by Linux kernel developers and maintainers of various
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...
s. Additionally, it hosts various other projects or their
mirrors
A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
, including the
Linux Documentation Project (LDP) and
CPAN
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) is a repository of over 250,000 software modules and accompanying documentation for 39,000 distributions, written in the Perl programming language by over 12,000 contributors. ''CPAN'' can denote eith ...
.
Since August 2014, kernel.org provides additional security by mandating
two-factor authentication for
commits performed to hosted
Git repositories that contain source code of the Linux kernel, with support for both
soft tokens and
hard tokens.
2011 attack
On 28 August 2011, developers at kernel.org realized that there had been a major security breach. Intruders had gained root access to the system and added a trojan to the startup scripts. Developers reinstalled all the servers and investigated the origin of the attack. It is likely, although not confirmed, that the kernel.org intrusion is related to the intrusions of
LinuxFoundation.org and
Linux.com
Linux.com is a website owned by the Linux Foundation. The goal of the site is to provide information about the developments and changes in Linux and related products. Linux.com offers free Linux tutorials, news and blogs, discussion forums and ...
websites that were determined shortly afterwards.
Git, a distributed and open-source source management system designed by
Linus Torvalds to guarantee the integrity of the source code, is used to keep track of changes in the Linux source code. This and the fact that the source code is available to anyone and widely known makes any attempt to tamper with the source code fairly easy to detect and revert if required. All that makes kernel.org not the primary
repository
Repository may refer to:
Archives and online databases
* Content repository, a database with an associated set of data management tools, allowing application-independent access to the content
* Disciplinary repository (or subject repository), an ...
, but rather a distribution point of the kernel sources.
Kernel.org was back online by November 2011, with the exception of a few secondary services. , however, the site maintainers still have not published a report of how the breach occurred.
A 27 year old resident of Florida, US was arrested in 2016 for the attack.
See also
*
Linux kernel mailing list (LKML)
References
External links
*
{{Linux kernel
Linux websites
Open-source software hosting facilities