An XDA Recognized Developer is being funded by Google to improve Linux Kernel security

Google and the Linux Foundation announced plans to provide funds to two Linux kernel security developers, one of whom is Nathan Chancellor, a well-known kernel developer on our forums. The two developers will focus their time on improving kernel security and associated initiatives.

The news comes on the heels of the Linux Foundation’s Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) recently publishing an open-source contributor survey report that identified a need for additional work on security in open-source software. In a press release, the Linux Foundation said Google’s contribution to underwriting two full-time security maintainers signals how important it is to maintain the integrity of open-source software.

“At Google, security is always top of mind and we understand the critical role it plays to the sustainability of open source software,” said Dan Lorenc, Staff Software Engineer, Google. “We’re honored to support the efforts of both Gustavo Silva and Nathan Chancellor as they work to enhance the security of the Linux kernel.”

Chancellor, who has been working to submit patches to the Linux kernel for four and a half years, will focus on triaging and fixing bugs found within Clang/LLVM compilers. He’ll also begin adding features and polish to the kernel using these compilers.

“I hope that more and more people will start to use the LLVM compiler infrastructure project and contribute fixes to it and the kernel – it will go a long way towards improving Linux security for everyone,” Chancellor said.

Silva, meanwhile, has been dedicating his Linux security work to eliminating several classes of buffer overflows by transforming all instances of zero-length and one-element arrays into flexible-array members. Silva will also focus his time on fixing bugs before they hit the mainline.

“Ensuring the security of the Linux kernel is extremely important as it’s a critical part of modern computing and infrastructure. It requires us all to assist in any way we can to ensure that it is sustainably secure,” said David A. Wheeler, the Linux Foundation. “We extend a special thanks to Google for underwriting Gustavo and Nathan’s Linux kernel security development work along with a thank you to all the maintainers, developers and organizations who have made the Linux kernel a collaborative global success.”

Previously, Google and the Linux Foundation independently committed to helping open source projects manage their trademarks.

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