Kernel release status

CONFIG_CC_STACKPROTECTOR cannot be enabled alone anymore. See the link I pasted above where Ingo was talking about stackprotector_all being on by default because otherwise it wouldn't have stopped vmsplice (which it had nothing to do with).

I don't believe it has to do with SYSCALL_DEFINE, because I've found other syscalls that were protected (disassemble kernel/sys.o for example and you'll see that sys_prctl is protected).

But yes, there is definitely an important weakness/vulnerability in the stackprotector implementation (which must have been silently fixed in a newer gcc perhaps? for Ingo to have gotten his results). Nevertheless, this makes it quite a poor protection, and some mention should be made in the configure help about the ambiguous protection it provides depending on your compiler version (and give a recommended minimum compiler version that does what the feature actually claims).

-Brad