diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9a0aaad..7966b8d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -83,6 +83,13 @@ along with other hardening for the C standard library implementation.
 For Android, only current generation Android Open Source Project branches will
 be supported, which currently means `android10-release`.
 
+The Linux kernel's implementation of Memory Protection Keys was severely broken
+before Linux 5.0. The `CONFIG_SEAL_METADATA` feature should only be enabled for
+use on kernels newer than 5.0 or longterm branches with a backport of the [fix
+for the
+issue](https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=a31e184e4f69965c99c04cc5eb8a4920e0c63737).
+This issue was discovered and reported by the hardened\_malloc project.
+
 ## Testing
 
 ### Individual Applications
@@ -983,7 +990,6 @@ Additional system calls when `CONFIG_SEAL_METADATA=true` is set:
 * `pkey_alloc`
 * `pkey_mprotect` instead of `mprotect` with an additional `pkey` parameter,
   but otherwise the same (regular `mprotect` is never called)
-* `uname` (to detect old buggy kernel versions)
 
 Additional system calls for Android builds with `LABEL_MEMORY`:
 
diff --git a/h_malloc.c b/h_malloc.c
index 998de6f..2251686 100644
--- a/h_malloc.c
+++ b/h_malloc.c
@@ -80,7 +80,6 @@ static union {
         struct region_metadata *regions[2];
 #ifdef USE_PKEY
         int metadata_pkey;
-        bool pkey_state_preserved_on_fork;
 #endif
     };
     char padding[PAGE_SIZE];
@@ -1023,15 +1022,6 @@ static void full_unlock(void) {
 static void post_fork_child(void) {
     thread_unseal_metadata();
 
-#ifdef USE_PKEY
-    if (!ro.pkey_state_preserved_on_fork) {
-        // disable sealing to work around kernel bug causing fork to lose the pkey setup
-        memory_protect_rw(&ro, sizeof(ro));
-        ro.metadata_pkey = -1;
-        memory_protect_ro(&ro, sizeof(ro));
-    }
-#endif
-
     mutex_init(&ro.region_allocator->lock);
     random_state_init(&ro.region_allocator->rng);
     for (unsigned arena = 0; arena < N_ARENA; arena++) {
@@ -1066,15 +1056,6 @@ COLD static void init_slow_path(void) {
 
 #ifdef USE_PKEY
     ro.metadata_pkey = pkey_alloc(0, 0);
-
-    // pkey state is not preserved on fork before Linux 5.0 unless the patch was backported
-    struct utsname uts;
-    if (uname(&uts) == 0) {
-        unsigned long version = strtoul(uts.release, NULL, 10);
-        if (version >= 5) {
-            ro.pkey_state_preserved_on_fork = true;
-        }
-    }
 #endif
 
     if (sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE) != PAGE_SIZE) {