This release is an emergency release to fix a critical vulnerability in the Linux kernel.

Changes and updates

  • Update the Linux kernel to 6.1.38.

    This update fixes:

    These vulnerabilities could allow a malicious application running in Tails to access and steal data from another application in Tails, for example passwords stored in KeePassXC or private keys stored in Electrum.

    This attack is unlikely, but could be performed by a strong attacker, such as a government or a hacking firm. We are not aware of this attack being used in the wild.

Fixed problems

For more details, read our changelog.

Known issues

None specific to this release.

See the list of long-standing issues.

Get Tails 5.16.1

To upgrade your Tails USB stick and keep your Persistent Storage

  • Automatic upgrades are available from Tails 5.0 or later to 5.16.1.

    You can reduce the size of the download of future automatic upgrades by doing a manual upgrade to the latest version.

  • If you cannot do an automatic upgrade or if Tails fails to start after an automatic upgrade, please try to do a manual upgrade.

To install Tails on a new USB stick

Follow our installation instructions:

The Persistent Storage on the USB stick will be lost if you install instead of upgrading.

To download only

If you don't need installation or upgrade instructions, you can download Tails 5.16.1 directly: