For a project such as OpenVZ, security of the software is of paramount importance. This is Let's explain how we assure that OpenVZ is secure.
== Kernel ==
The OpenVZ kernel is based on the Linux kernel. The OpenVZ team tracks and analyzes all the security updates to the Linux kernel and applies them accordingly.
Note that the current stable kernel branch is based on the 2.6.18 kernel, which is quite old. This is done to To achieve the maximum possible security and stability, OpenVZ kernels are based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernels, which are conservative and well-maintained. By using an older enterprise kernel as a base (rather than latest vanilla kernel), we avoid adding new bugs or security holes, but still the old bugs and holes ones are getting discovered and fixed, and the kernel matures. Big vendors such as Novell and Red Hat do the same for their enterprise Linux offerings: for example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 is based on kernel 2.6.9.
== Audit ==
