kernel

🐧 NullSec Linux — Custom Kernel

Overview

NullSec Linux ships with a custom-built kernel compiled from upstream kernel.org sources with all upstream distro branding removed and replaced with NullSec identity. This is not a patched derivative — it's a clean rebuild with NullSec-specific build identity.

Current Version: 6.17.13+2-amd64 Base Source: kernel.org v6.17.13 Architecture: x86_64 (amd64)

What Makes It "NullSec"

The kernel is rebuilt from vanilla source with the following customizations:

Component	Value
uname -r	6.17.13+2-amd64
EXTRAVERSION	(cleared — no upstream distro tag)
CONFIG_LOCALVERSION	+2-amd64
KBUILD_BUILD_USER	nullsec
KBUILD_BUILD_HOST	nullsec.sh
KBUILD_BUILD_TIMESTAMP	NullSec 6.17.13-1nullsec1 (2026-02-12)
KDEB_PKGVERSION	6.17.13-1
/proc/version	Linux version 6.17.13+2-amd64 (nullsec@nullsec.sh) #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC NullSec 6.17.13-1nullsec1 ...

No Parrot, Debian, or Ubuntu strings appear anywhere in the running kernel.

Packages

The kernel build produces these .deb packages:

Package	Size	Purpose
linux-image-6.17.13+2-amd64_6.17.13-1_amd64.deb	~164 MB	Kernel image, modules, initramfs
linux-headers-6.17.13+2-amd64_6.17.13-1_amd64.deb	~9.2 MB	Headers for DKMS/module builds
linux-libc-dev_6.17.13-1_amd64.deb	~1.4 MB	Userspace development headers

Download from Releases.

Install

# Download packages from the latest release, then:
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-6.17.13+2-amd64_6.17.13-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-6.17.13+2-amd64_6.17.13-1_amd64.deb
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

After reboot, verify:

uname -r
# Expected: 6.17.13+2-amd64

uname -a
# Expected: Linux <hostname> 6.17.13+2-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC NullSec 6.17.13-1nullsec1 ...

cat /proc/version
# Should contain "nullsec@nullsec.sh" — no Parrot/Debian references

Build from Source

To rebuild the kernel yourself:

# Install dependencies
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential flex bison bc dwarves \
    libssl-dev libncurses-dev libelf-dev cpio

# Run the build script
cd kernel/
chmod +x build-kernel.sh
./build-kernel.sh all

# Packages will be in kernel-build/
ls -lh kernel-build/*.deb

The build takes approximately 15–45 minutes depending on your hardware. The script:

1. Downloads the kernel source from kernel.org
2. Applies your running kernel's .config
3. Removes all upstream distro branding
4. Sets NullSec build identity strings
5. Compiles with make bindeb-pkg
6. Outputs .deb packages ready for install

Build Options

./build-kernel.sh deps      # Install dependencies only
./build-kernel.sh download  # Download kernel source only
./build-kernel.sh config    # Download + apply config
./build-kernel.sh rebrand   # Apply NullSec branding (source must exist)
./build-kernel.sh build     # Rebrand + compile
./build-kernel.sh all       # Full pipeline (default)

Kernel Config

The kernel config used for the build is in configs/config-6.17.13-nullsec. Key settings:

• Preemption: PREEMPT_DYNAMIC (balanced latency)
• Security: SELinux, AppArmor, YAMA LSM enabled
• Networking: Full netfilter/iptables/nftables stack
• Filesystems: ext4, btrfs, xfs, ntfs3, squashfs, overlayfs
• Virtualization: KVM, VirtIO drivers
• Hardware: Broad hardware support (same as base distro)
• DKMS: Headers package supports out-of-tree module compilation

Verify Integrity

# After downloading .deb packages, verify checksums:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

Directory Structure

kernel/
├── build-kernel.sh              # Main build script
├── test-kernel-vm.sh            # VM testing script
├── configs/
│   └── config-6.17.13-nullsec   # Kernel .config
├── patches/                     # Custom patches (if any)
├── SHA256SUMS                   # Package checksums
└── README.md                    # This file

License

The Linux kernel is licensed under GPL-2.0. NullSec build scripts are licensed under MIT.