Today we are handing over future maintenance of grsecurity test patches to the community. This makes grsecurity for Linux 4.9 the last version Open Source Security Inc. will release to non-subscribers.

Grsecurity development and maintenance will accelerate. We will continue to stay on top of the latest Linux kernel developments, track daily git commits, and maintain internal patches for the latest kernel releases. We are fast-tracking the integration of our next generation technologies into grsecurity.

The dedicated maintenance of a security-centric codebase provides the Linux community a unique opportunity to gain experience in kernel security, fostering a new generation of security minds.

We are grateful to those who have contributed code to grsecurity over the years. Directly, this includes Mathias Krause, Zbyniu Krzystolik, Rodrigo Branco, Corey Minyard, and Enrico Perla. Indirectly, this includes all the work done by Peter Busser in the former Adamantix project (including most of the code in paxtest), all of the mostly under-appreciated and uncredited work by Gentoo Hardened to push through widespread use of PIE and fixing userland to handle the stricter memory defenses of PaX (which SELinux and others were later able to benefit from). Specifically, we'd like to thank Mike Frysinger, Anthony Basile, Ned Ludd, Peter S. Mazinger, and Alexander Gabert for their Gentoo Hardened work and forum user meev0 for the majority of the grsecurity wiki.

Finally, our heartfelt gratitude to the users who have supported our public work through donations or otherwise over the past 16 years.

For more information regarding this announcement, we've provided a FAQ. We remain completely dedicated to our customers who support our work. Open Source Security Inc., a Pennsylvania Corporation, provides grsecurity stable patch subscription services, professional support, and custom security development services.

Very Respectfully,

Brad Spengler & The PaX Team