The Debian Project has announced the release of Debian 12.6, the fifth update (12.3 has never been released) to its stable “Bookworm” series, focusing primarily on addressing security issues and fixing critical bugs.
You might have noticed that the last 12.5 version was released almost five months ago. However, there’s a reason for this unusual delay.
After the drama with Linux XZ Tarball’s backdoor discovery in late March affected the Debian sid branch, the devs decided to pause the 12.6 release for an in-depth analysis of CVE effects.
This is not surprising, knowing that Debian is synonymous with uncompromising security, where nothing is left unattended to the smallest detail, guaranteeing the distribution’s legendary stability and reliability.
What’s New in Debian 12.6
The 12.6 update includes massive fixes to numerous packages across the entire system. Notable updates and security enhancements include:
- Security Fixes: Addressed vulnerabilities like remote code execution issues in packages like Bluez, Curl, and OpenSSL. These fixes ensure safer usage and prevent potential exploits.
- Bug Fixes: The devs corrected issues like race conditions in amavisd-new, adjusted compatibility for various libraries, and improved handling of specific file systems to prevent data loss.
- Package Updates: Updated critical packages such as Linux kernel, OpenSSL, and PostgreSQL 15 to their latest stable versions, ensuring compatibility and performance improvements.
Moreover, the Debian installer has received updates to incorporate all fixes in this point release, ensuring that new installations benefit from these enhancements.
Remember that this update does not include new versions of the “Bookworm” release but only bugs and security fixes for some packages. So, if you’re already using it, you must run the command below to upgrade your system to the most recent stable Debian 12.6.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgradeCode language: Bash (bash)The release announcement provides more information on all changes. A comprehensive list of all packages that have received updates is available here.
Lastly, if you’re still using Debian 11 (Bullseye), now labeled ‘oldstable,’ we want to inform you that it also got an update to v11.10, which fixes 62 bugs and includes 76 security updates for many packages, such as Firefox ESR, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Squid, Curl, Nano, and Postfix, among others.
If you want to move from Debian 11 (Bullseye) to Debian 12 (Bookworm), check out our easy-to-follow guide to make the transition as smooth as possible.
