• Debian is pretty good at ensuring security fixes are applied to their software. Even if the specific version of a program (or the kernel) is old they make sure to include security fixes of newer versions.

    So like the other comment said just upgrading like normal should be enough.

  • 6.12.90 is the latest release, you’re good. Just make sure you’ve rebooted since installing it.

  • Make sure you have the security repo enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list. It should be enabled by default. Just search that file for “security”

    Then just run apt update, apt upgrade, and reboot.

    • I think apt upgrade wouldn’t upgrade the kernel. The correct one is apt dist-upgrade.

      Edit: apt update would patch the kernel.

      • You’re thinking of apt full-upgrade. dist-upgrade is the old name for it.

        The only difference between upgrade and full-upgrade is that full-upgrade will delete packages if necessary (like if you have a program installed that conflicts with a new version of another program), whereas upgrade will never do that. upgrade is safer for day-to-day updates.

        If you do an upgrade and there’s packages that need you to run full-upgrade, you’ll see a message saying that some packages have been held back.

        full-upgrade is mostly safe. You just need to read the output carefully before continuing.

      • upgrade to next kernel version != patch the kernel with backported security fixes

        • Thank you for your reply.

          I saw a post lately regarding this and my Debian kernel update was held back because I thought apt upgrade upgrades everything. After I ran apt dist-upgrade it was upgraded.

          The post: https://lemmy.world/post/46322168