Test KRNL-5830 incorrectly reports "Reboot of system is most likely needed"

[jamesrei155-stack]

The Lynis test KRNL-5830 incorrectly reports "Reboot of system is most likely needed" on an up-to-date Arch Linux system when the standard linux package is not installed and a custom kernel (e.g., linux-zen) is in use. This occurs even when the running kernel's version matches the installed package version.

System Information:

• OS: Arch Linux (Rolling Release)
• Kernel Package in Use: linux-zen (Version: 6.18.2.zen2-1)
• Standard Kernel Package (linux): Not installed
• Running Kernel (uname -r): 6.18.2-zen2-1-zen
• Lynis Version: 3.1.6

Troubleshooting/Verification Performed:

1. Manual Version Check: Confirmed kernel versions match.
   • uname -r output: 6.18.2-zen2-1-zen
   • pacman -Q linux-zen output: linux-zen 6.18.2.zen2-1
2. File Check: Confirmed that standard reboot flag files do not exist (e.g., /var/run/reboot-required).
3. Alternative Tool Verification: Ran sudo needrestart, which correctly reported: Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.

[Wuzado]

I can reproduce this issue using the linux-hardened package.

Lynis logs:

2026-01-13 01:45:32 Performing test ID KRNL-5830 (Checking if system is running on the latest installed kernel)
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Test: Checking presence /var/run/reboot-required.pkgs
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: file /var/run/reboot-required.pkgs not found
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Test: Checking presence /var/run/needs_restarting
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: file /var/run/needs_restarting not found
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: /boot exists, performing more tests from here
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: found /boot/vmlinuz-linux-hardened
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: version derived from file name is 'hardened'
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: found version hardened
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: active kernel version 6.17.13-hardened1-2-hardened
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: reboot needed, as there is a difference between active kernel and the one on disk
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Result: /var/cache/apt/archives/ does not exist
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Warning: Reboot of system is most likely needed [test:KRNL-5830] [details:] [solution:text:reboot]
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Hardening: assigned partial number of hardening points (0 of 5). Currently having 0 points (out of 5)
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Security check: file is normal
2026-01-13 01:45:32 Checking permissions of /usr/share/lynis/include/tests_memory_processes
2026-01-13 01:45:32 File permissions are OK