For non for profits that are using either Linux Virtual Machine / Virtual Private Servers, or Dedicated Servers with Hosting UK you may be interested in this release that came out from Cloud Linux in the last few days.

“In light of the recent Dirty Cow exploit, said by experts to be the “Most serious” Linux privilege-escalation bug ever, we’ve decided to push forward our prior plans to offer KernelCare for free for nonprofit organizations so that they can protect themselves from critical vulnerabilities including the Dirty Cow CVE-2016-5195.“

— CloudLinux

Updating a kernel will usually involve a download, and install – which is automated on the whole – or certainly can be – however – you need to reboot the machine to put that live. There is the rub.

Solutions such as this allow you to patch in place without need for a reboot – which means you are protected as soon as the patch is released. If you are non for profit – then this may be of interest to you.

We also offer Cloud Linux builds for cPanel and Plesk virtual machines. If you are unfamiliar with Cloud Linux it is a bolt on to CentOS that allows a number of things – including PHP version switching and maintenance, containerising of each user, and quota’s for memory, IO and CPU. All of which are great if you have sites with a predisposition for denial of service, resource hogging, and you are looking to either protect, or level the playing field within a multi tenant environment.

If you are looking to find out more about the Kernel Care option – then see the CloudLinux blog article on non profit licensing – or if you are interested in CloudLinux as a tool in your management blend – then do not hesitate to get in contact with sales@hostinguk.net.

Important Bit: We have no affiliation with Cloud Linux – short of using their products within production shared and high availability environments.