Security updates without rebooting

[Lowell Gilbert]

Carlos Silva aka |Danger_Man| <full-disclosure at csilva.org> writes:

> Can someone explain how to apply security patches on the system
> without rebooting the machine?
> 
> I guess that I cant patch the kernel without compiling and rebooting
> the machine, so the only way is with iptables and keeping the daemons
> "fresh"?

I think it would better to look at it this way:  you can't apply a
patch without stopping and restarting whatever the patch is part of.
For the kernel, that obviously does require rebooting.  But it depends
on what the patch is; security advisories usually describe how to
apply fixes or workarounds. http://www.freebsd.org/security/#adv