Did You Know Oracle Solaris Includes Ksplice?

Look what we have here:

-bash-5.0$ pkg list ksplice
NAME (PUBLISHER)     VERSION                    IFO
system/ksplice       11.4-11.4.29.0.1.82.3      i--


Ksplice supports online Kernel Updates.

Oracle Support delivers in rare cases of Kernel issues
an IDR which are installed online using ksplice.

For a Solaris Admin such an IDR is handled like other IDRs.
It can be installed as usual with the pkg command.


Here a sample:

# pkg info -g ./idr4712.1.p5p idr4712
          Name: idr4712
       Summary: To back out This IDR : # /usr/bin/pkg uninstall -r idr4712
   Description: sparc IDR built for release : Solaris 11.4 SRU # 29.82.3
         State: Not installed
     Publisher: solaris
       Version: 1
        Branch: None
Packaging Date: February 12, 2021 at 10:22:38 AM
          Size: 4.08 kB
          FMRI: pkg://solaris/idr4712@1:20210212T102238Z


-bash-5.0$ pkg list -g ./idr4712.1.p5p -af
NAME (PUBLISHER)         VERSION                      IFO
idr4712                  1                            ---
system/kernel/platform   11.4-11.4.29.0.1.82.3.4712.1 ---
system/ksplice           11.4-11.4.29.0.1.82.3.4712.1 ---
system/osnet-splice      11.4-11.4.29.0.1.82.3.4712.1 ---


# pkg set-publisher -g file:///var/tmp/idr4712.1.p5p solaris

# pkg install idr4712
          Packages to install:   2
            Packages to update:   2
            Services to change:   3
       Create boot environment:  No
Create backup boot environment: Yes
..
..
..


Using spliceadm you can verify the installed splices.

# spliceadm
ID        STATE        CVE             BUGID
471201    applied      N/A             32407818


in case of a problem you can even revert the fix

# spliceadm reverse 471201
Splice 471201 reversed successfully on Fri Apr 23 13:15:20.

# spliceadm status
ID        STATE        CVE             BUGID
471201    not-applied  N/A             32407818


Another powerful and easy to use Solaris Feature

Does your system contain the fixes for CVEs or are you vulnerable?

On Solaris 11 the software packages are stored in a IPS repository.
One of the packages is 'solaris-11-cpu'.

If a CVE is fixed Oracle adds the CVE info into this package as metadata.

That's great. You can easly search for a CVE to find out which
package and Solaris Update contains the fix.

Current sample for CVS-2020-14871 "component: Pluggable authentication module"

-bash-5.0$ pkg search :CVE-2020-14871:
INDEX          ACTION VALUE              PACKAGE
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/consolidation/osnet/osnet-incorporation@11.4,5.11-11.4.25.0.1.75.3 pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.12-1
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/consolidation/osnet/osnet-incorporation@11.4,5.11-11.4.25.0.1.75.3 pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.9-2
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/consolidation/osnet/osnet-incorporation@11.4,5.11-11.4.25.0.1.75.3 pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.11-1
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/consolidation/osnet/osnet-incorporation@11.4,5.11-11.4.25.0.1.75.3 pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.10-2
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/consolidation/osnet/osnet-incorporation@11.4,5.11-11.4.27.0.1.82.2 pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.12-1
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/consolidation/osnet/osnet-incorporation@11.4,5.11-11.4.27.0.1.82.2 pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.11-1
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/system/library@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0    pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.6-2
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/system/library@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0    pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.12-1
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/system/library@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0   pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.8-2
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/system/library@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0   pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.9-2
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/system/library@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0    pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.11-1
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/system/library@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0   pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.10-2
CVE-2020-14871 set    pkg://solaris/system/library@0.5.11,5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0   pkg:/support/critical-patch-update/solaris-11-cpu@2020.7-2

This means you have the fix installed if you are on
Solaris 11.4  CPU 2020-09 or later which is S11.4 SRU 25

Users of our JomaSoft VDCF tool can list the systems centrally
where the required package is already installed

-bash-5.0$ vpkgadm -c show_server id=solaris/system/library@0.5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0

Package: system/library - Core system libraries
PKG-ID : solaris/system/library@0.5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0
Version: 0.5.11-0.175.3.36.0.22.0 is installed on:
   Name  Type     PatchLevel                GroupPkg       Comment
  g0062  Node     3.36.0.23.0 (U3.SRU36)    large-server   ZFS Cloning / Shared DS
  v0123  vServer  3.36.0.23.0 (U3.SRU36)    mini-server    ZFS Clones
  v0143  vServer  3.36.0.23.0 (U3.SRU36)    mini-server    Shared dataset

If the fix is not installed, it does not mean you are vulnerable in this special case,
because the bug has no impact on Solaris 11.1 or later.

This is documented here:
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html#AppendixSUNS

Anyway ... make sure you are up-to-date ...