The Linux Kernel Just Swallowed a Userspace Problem. That’s Not a Bug—It’s a Strategy.
The Linux kernel is adding support for $ORIGIN in ELF path resolution, and most people are celebrating the convenience. They’re missing the real story. This isn’t about making dynamic linking easier—it’s about the kernel reclaiming a security boundary that userspace fumbled for decades. Every broken rpath, every LD_LIBRARY_PATH hack, every wrapper script exists because the kernel outsourced path resolution and trusted userspace to handle it. That trust was misplaced. The kernel is taking it back.