The Kernun auditing tool kernun-audit(1) provides a convenient source of information about bugs discovered in the Kernun software. The auditing tool also reports when a new software version becomes available. A Kernun audit is usually executed daily by the cron daemon via the periodic command. It downloads the up-to-date auditing database, and then examines the product type, version, and architecture of the installed system. Based on these values, the relevant records are extracted from the database and reported. There are two classes of records: bugs and software updates.

Each bug that is discovered in the currently installed version of the Kernun product is reported. A bug has a unique identification number, a description, a list of versions, in which it occurs, a solution, and a workaround. The recommended solution is always a software update to a version in which the bug has been fixed (if such version is available). The workaround (if available) describes how to minimize the impact of the bug without updating the software. It should be applied if the software has not been fixed yet or if an immediate update is infeasible. Nevertheless, the workaround should always be regarded as a temporary solution and the Kernun installation should be updated as soon as possible.

Software updates are reported only for the same product and architecture as in the installed system. The latest patch release from each release branch is shown. Only versions newer than the currently installed version are displayed. For example, if 3.1 is the version installed and 3.0–3.0.6, 3.1–3.1.3, and 3.2–3.2.1 are available, 3.1.3 and 3.2.1 will be the versions reported.

The initial configuration of a Kernun system runs the auditing tool daily using the DEFAULT-CRONTAB and DEFAULT-PERIODIC variables from the included crontab and the periodic configuration file crontab.cml. Auditing can be disabled by setting daily_status_security_kernun_audit_enable to "NO" in that file. The auditing tool kernun-audit can be also executed manually from the command line. The product name, version number, and architecture name are obtained from the current system, or can be specified using the command line arguments of kernun-audit. The identification of the current system is stored in the files /kernun-product (product name) and /kernun-version (build number, which contains the version number before the first dot and the architecture name after the second dot). If the location (local or remote) of the audit database is not specified, the database is downloaded from download.kernun.com by default.

The www.kernun.com Web site provides an online version of the Kernun auditing tool. After filling the Kernun product, version, and architecture in a form, the auditing report is generated in the same format as the one kernun-audit produces.