Kernel Panic Archives

Winsage

December 3, 2025

Linus Torvalds Defends Windows’ Blue Screen of Death

Microsoft changed the color of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) from blue to black, making it visually similar to Linux's kernel panic screen. Linus Torvalds defended Microsoft's error screens in a video with Linus Sebastian, stating that many issues attributed to Windows instability are often due to unreliable hardware rather than software bugs. He advocates for the use of Error Correction Code (ECC) to enhance hardware reliability, suggesting that many BSOD incidents may stem from hardware issues.

Winsage

October 18, 2025

New Windows GDI Rust Kernel Vulnerability Triggers Remote Code Execution

Security researchers identified a vulnerability in the Rust-based Windows kernel component, specifically within the Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI), which can be triggered remotely and cause system-wide crashes. The flaw was linked to the win32kbase_rs.sys kernel driver, resulting from an out-of-bounds memory access while processing a malformed path in an EmfPlusDrawBeziers record. This vulnerability represents a denial-of-service risk, allowing a malicious actor to crash systems by embedding a harmful metafile in documents or webpages. It affects both x86 and x64 systems running Windows 11 version 24H2, with a single compromised low-privilege account capable of causing widespread crashes. Microsoft released a fix in the May 28, 2025, preview update (KB5058499), which included a new bounds-hardened routine, but initial testing showed that the feature flag for this fix was disabled, delaying full mitigation until July 2025 Patch Tuesday.

Winsage

October 17, 2025

Denial of Fuzzing: Rust in the Windows kernel

Check Point Research (CPR) identified a significant security vulnerability in the Rust-based kernel component of the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) in Windows, reported to Microsoft in January 2025. The issue was resolved in OS Build 26100.4202, part of the KB5058499 update released on May 28, 2025. The vulnerability was discovered during a fuzzing campaign targeting the Windows graphics component through metafiles, revealing multiple security issues including information disclosure and arbitrary code execution. The specific bug was linked to a crash occurring during the execution of a NtGdiSelectClipPath syscall in the win32kbasers.sys driver, triggered by an out-of-bounds memory access when processing malformed metafile records. Microsoft classified the vulnerability as moderate severity and addressed it in a non-security update, implementing substantial changes to the affected kernel module.

Winsage

June 18, 2024

Linux gets its own Windows-style Blue Screen of Death

The Linux blue screen is less cryptic than Microsoft's BSOD, showing a fully blue screen with an ASCII art penguin in the top left corner and the text "Kernel Panic!" in the center, prompting the user to reboot. The error message will be named more precisely in the future and will include helpful details, as well as the ability to call up the error with a QR code.