> Linux seems to have a huge attack surface that doesn't necessarily need to be there for every user/server.

IIRC it was CVE-2026-31431 earlier this year that made me go audit what modules were loaded and go on a whole hardening kick. As far as I understood, the vulnerable module (algif_aead) wasn't even commonly used by anything.

So why is it loaded by default? It's just an extra code path to potentially exploit my system with. It's even marked deprecated (and insecure!), yet a fresh NixOS (and Arch, I believe) install has it loaded out of the box.

I mean, I get it, broad compatibility and all that jazz... but still.