agentmods.dev

kernel-livepatch

A set of tools for changing the code of a running Linux kernel without its original source code or header files. It examines the running kernel, reconstructs needed information, and creates a kernel module for the change.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to inspect kernel functions, disassemble them, reconstruct kernel definitions, and apply simple instruction changes or function hooks with a kernel module.
Why use it?
It removes the need to reboot or rebuild the kernel for certain live changes. Kernel patching is risky and requires root access, so this is for specialised systems work.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

21 5mo ago A scan 0 tokens original MIT
View the source file DavidBuchanan314/kernel-livepatch-skill
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/davidbuchanan314/kernel-livepatch-skill/kernel-livepatch
Any agent
npx skills add DavidBuchanan314/kernel-livepatch-skill --skill kernel-livepatch
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DavidBuchanan314/kernel-livepatch-skill

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 0 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 426 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00426
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00213
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00085
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00043

Measured 2d ago against content hash d8de40fa0a74, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

kernel-livepatch scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 11 executable files (gen_vmlinux_h.py, ghidra_load.py, ghidra_print_func.py, …), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

skills/kernel-livepatch/SKILL.md · 23 lines

What it actually says

Kernel Live-Patch Skill

The tools here allow claude to live-patch the running kernel, without requiring source or even headers.

Workflow:

  1. Dump the running kernel with kdump_sections.py (this step requires root - you may need to prompt the user to invoke sudo. all other steps must be done autonomously.). This step must be done for each session, since ASLR changes on each boot. Output goes to ./kdump/ by default.
  2. Load the dump into a headless ghidra project with ghidra_load.py
  3. Decompile+disassemble functions of interest using ghidra_print_func.py <function_name>. Any addresses you see here are absolute, ASLR is already accounted for. Hint: Grep ./kdump/kallsyms for available symbols.
  4. Reconstruct kernel headers using gen_vmlinux_h.py
  5. Devise a kernel patch strategy, and write a kernel module to perform the patching. (see ./example-module/ for an example).
    • It's ok to hardcode addresses.
    • You can do simple instruction patches with text_poke()
    • For nontrivial hooks, use register_kprobe()
    • NOTE: not all symbols are available! Grep the generated vmlinux.h to see what is. Anything defined as a macro is not present, you'll need to work around this. Some symbols may be available in ./kdump/kallsyms but not in vmlinux.h, if they're missing BTF info.
    • Ideally, you should have the module revert any patches when unloaded.
  6. Compile the module and instruct the user to insmod it.

Additional useful tools:

  • Use read_kdump.py to read subsections of an existing kernel dump, as raw data.
  • When --disasm LENGTH is passed to ghidra_print_func.py, the first positional arg is treated as an address. The Ghidra script skips decompilation and just disassembles the raw address range.
Files

What ships with it

14 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 23 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A d8de40fa0a74

Subscribe to this mod's changes

kernel-livepatch is a skill published in the GitHub repository DavidBuchanan314/kernel-livepatch-skill (21 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 426 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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