# Supporter spotlight: Kees Cook on Linux kernel security

DevFeed: [Supporter spotlight: Kees Cook on Linux kernel security](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/supporter-spotlight-kees-cook-on-linux-kernel-security-34159.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://reproducible-builds.org/news/2024/09/29/supporter-spotlight-kees-cook/>)

Published: 2024-09-29T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [reproducible-builds.org](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/reproducible-builds-org.md>)

Topics: [Linux Kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/linux-kernel.md>), [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [open-source-security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source-security.md>), [free software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/free-software.md>), [Arm](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/arm.md>), [Ubuntu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ubuntu.md>), [Debian](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/debian.md>), [Fedora](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/fedora.md>)

Tags: [arm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/arm.md>), [canonical](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/canonical.md>), [debian](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debian.md>), [fedora](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/fedora.md>), [free-software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/free-software.md>), [kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kernel.md>), [linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux.md>), [linux-kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux-kernel.md>), [open-source-security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source-security.md>), [org](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/org.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [ubuntu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ubuntu.md>)

## AI overview

This supporter spotlight interviews Kees Cook, founder of the Kernel Self-Protection Project, about his work improving Linux kernel security. He discusses kernel self-protection, recruiting expertise in ARM and memory management, and his earlier security-hardening work at Canonical on Ubuntu.

## Source excerpt

The Reproducible Builds project relies on several projects, supporters and sponsors for financial support, but they are also valued as ambassadors who spread the word about our project and the work that we do. This is the eighth installment in a series featuring the projects, companies and individuals who support the Reproducible Builds project. We started this series by featuring the Civil Infrastructure Platform project, and followed this up with a post about the Ford Foundation as well as recent ones about ARDC, the Google Open Source Security Team (GOSST), Bootstrappable Builds, the F-Droid project, David A. Wheeler and Simon Butler. Today, however, we will be talking with Kees Cook, founder of the Kernel Self-Protection Project. Vagrant Cascadian: Could you tell me a bit about yourself? What sort of things do you work on? Kees Cook: I'm a Free Software junkie living in Portland, Oregon, USA. I have been focusing on the upstream Linux kernel's protection of itself. There is a lot of support that the kernel provides userspace to defend itself, but when I first started focusing on this there was not as much attention given to the kernel protecting itself. As userspace got more hardened the kernel itself became a bigger target. Almost 9 years ago I formally announced the Kernel Self-Protection Project because the work necessary was way more than my time and expertise could do alone. So I just try to get people to help as much as possible; people who understand the ARM architecture, people who understand the memory management subsystem to help, people who understand how to make the kernel less buggy. Vagrant: Could you describe the path that lead you to working on this sort of thing? Kees: I have always been interested in security through the aspect of exploitable flaws. I always thought it was like a magic trick to make a computer do something that it was very much not designed to do and seeing how easy it is to subvert bugs. I wanted to improve that fragility. In