One of the principles of good security practice is to keep all software versions and patches up-to-date. Oracle maintains software and releases errata and patch updates using the Oracle Linux yum server and the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN).

Updating the installed software on Oracle Linux to patch any vulnerabilities and minimize the attack surface as often as possible is considered good security practice. For more information, see Understanding the Importance of Updates.

Also consider using Oracle Ksplice in addition to regular system updates to automatically patch the running kernel and common userspace libraries such as openSSL and glibc without any required system downtime. For more information about Ksplice, see Oracle Linux: Ksplice User's Guide.