WireGuard vpn 1.0.0 appears in Linux 5.6 kernel

Version 1.0.0 of the VPN application WireGuard has appeared along with the release of Linux 5.6, of which WireGuard is now part. WireGuard should make vpn faster and easier, with a small codebase.

WireGuard’s lead developer Jason Donenfeld announces version 1.0.0 of the software and reports that in the run-up to its integration into Linux 5.6, WireGuard has undergone a security audit and has received stability improvements. Distributions such as Arch, Gentoo, and Fedora 32 automatically receive WireGuard when they update to kernel version 5.6. The developers are also working on backporting the vpn software for distributions running on older kernel versions. Windows and macOS versions of WireGuard have not yet reached 1.0.0 status.

WireGuard is VPN software with a small codebase that should make setting up VPN easy and ensure faster connections, Ars Technica writes. The software quickly gained approval from Linux frontrunner Linus Torvalds, who called it a work of art in 2018 compared to the horrors of OpenVPN and IPSec.

The software is part of Linux 5.6, which was released on Sunday. According to Phoronix, this is a relatively large kernel update, including support for USB 4 thanks to Intel’s contribution based on its Thunderbolt 3 driver code.

Also, the kernel offers early Y2038 compatibility for 32bit systems. The year 2038 issue refers to the date change that 32-bit Unix systems make on January 19, 2038 at 03:14:07 utc. They will indicate the date December 13, 1901 without modification at that time. This is because the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970 00:00:00 utc, the beginning of the ‘Unix time’, is recorded in a 32-bit integer. In 2038, the maximum value is reached and the programs using Unix time switch to a large negative number, which they interpret as December 13, 1901.