This is a hardened kernel configuration for Whonix / Kicksecure. hardened-vm-kernel is designed specifically for virtual machines and hardened-host-kernel is designed for hosts.
Both configs try to have as many hardening options enabled as possible and have little attack surface. hardened-vm-kernel only has support for VMs and all other hardware options are disabled to reduce attack surface and compile time.
During installation of hardened-vm-kernel, it compiles the kernel on your own machine and does not use a pre-compiled kernel. This ensures the kernel symbols in the compiled image are completely unique which makes it far harder for kernel exploits. This is possible due to hardened-vm-kernel having only VM config options enabled which drastically reduces compile time.
During installation of hardened-host-kernel, the kernel is not compiled on your machine and it uses a pre-compiled kernel. This is because the host kernel needs most hardware options enabled to support most devices which makes compilation take a very long time.
The VM kernel is more secure than the host kernel due to having less attack surface and not being pre-compiled but if you want more security for the host, it is recommended to edit the hardened host config, enable only the hardware options you need and compile the kernel yourself. This makes the security of the host and VM kernel comparable.
Both configs were based on the default Debian config.
These kernels use the linux-hardened patch for further hardening. Custom hardening patches should be sent there.
This only supports LTS kernels as they have the least attack surface (stable kernels have more code and more bugs) and the best stability.
Build script /usr/share/hardened-vm-kernel/build does not run automatic yet.
Kernel does not get installed automatic yet.
See also development discussion: http://forums.whonix.org/t/kernel-recompilation-for-better-hardening
1. Download the APT Signing Key.
wget https://www.kicksecure.com/keys/derivative.asc
Users can check the Signing Key for better security.
2. Add the APT Signing Key.
sudo cp ~/derivative.asc /usr/share/keyrings/derivative.asc
3. Add the derivative repository.
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/derivative.asc] https://deb.kicksecure.com bookworm main contrib non-free" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/derivative.list
4. Update your package lists.
sudo apt-get update
5. Install hardened-kernel.
sudo apt-get install hardened-kernel
Can be build using standard Debian package build tools such as:
dpkg-buildpackage -b
See instructions.
NOTE: Replace generic-package with the actual name of this package hardened-kernel.
- A) easy, OR
- B) including verifying software signatures
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