diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0248fbf2..bf144acc 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,3 +6,6 @@ libbpf/
 site/
 header.html
 .idea/
+
+kerneltest/initramfs.cpio
+kerneltest/kernels/*
diff --git a/kerneltest/.gitkeep b/kerneltest/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/kerneltest/kernels/.gitkeep b/kerneltest/kernels/.gitkeep
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/xtask/Cargo.toml b/xtask/Cargo.toml
index 671a987c..1729c655 100644
--- a/xtask/Cargo.toml
+++ b/xtask/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,3 +14,10 @@ proc-macro2 = "1"
 indoc = "2.0"
 lazy_static = "1"
 serde_json = "1"
+reqwest = { version = "0.11.18", default-features = false, features = [
+    "blocking",
+    "default-tls",
+] }
+which = "4.4.0"
+itertools = "0.11.0"
+tempfile = "3.6.0"
diff --git a/xtask/src/kernel_test.rs b/xtask/src/kernel_test.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3476fc58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xtask/src/kernel_test.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,152 @@
+use std::{
+    path::{Path, PathBuf},
+    process::Command,
+};
+
+use anyhow::Context as _;
+use clap::Parser;
+use itertools::Itertools;
+
+use crate::{build_ebpf, integration_test};
+
+#[derive(Debug, Parser)]
+pub struct Options {
+    /// Set the endianness of the BPF target
+    #[clap(default_value = "bpfel-unknown-none", long)]
+    pub bpf_target: build_ebpf::Architecture,
+    /// Build and run the release target
+    #[clap(long)]
+    pub release: bool,
+    /// libbpf directory
+    #[clap(long, action)]
+    pub libbpf_dir: String,
+    /// Kernel version to use.
+    #[clap(name = "kernel-version", long)]
+    pub kernel_version: String,
+    /// Path to the kerneltest root.
+    #[clap(name = "kerneltest-root", long, default_value = "kerneltest")]
+    pub kerneltest_root: String,
+    /// Arguments to pass to your application
+    #[clap(name = "args", last = true)]
+    pub run_args: Vec<String>,
+}
+
+/// MUSL_TARGET is the target triple for the musl libc
+/// platform. It defaults to statically linking binaries.
+/// We need a statically linked binary to run in the initramfs
+/// created by bluebox.
+const MUSL_TARGET: &str = "x86_64-unknown-linux-musl";
+
+pub(crate) fn kernel_test(opts: Options) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
+    let Options {
+        bpf_target,
+        release,
+        libbpf_dir,
+        run_args,
+        kernel_version,
+        kerneltest_root,
+    } = opts;
+    build_ebpf::build_ebpf(build_ebpf::BuildEbpfOptions {
+        target: bpf_target,
+        libbpf_dir: PathBuf::from(&libbpf_dir),
+    })
+    .context("failed to build ebpf")?;
+    let integration_test_bin = integration_test::build(integration_test::BuildOptions {
+        release,
+        target: Some(String::from(MUSL_TARGET)),
+    })?;
+    let kerneltest_root = PathBuf::from(&kerneltest_root);
+    let initramfs_path = build_initramfs(&kerneltest_root, &integration_test_bin, &run_args)?;
+    let kernel_image_path = get_kernel(&kernel_version, &kerneltest_root)?;
+    run(&initramfs_path, &kernel_image_path)
+}
+
+const BLUEBOX_BINARY: &str = "bluebox";
+
+fn build_initramfs(
+    kerneltest_root: &Path,
+    integration_test_bin: &Path,
+    integration_test_args: &[String],
+) -> Result<std::path::PathBuf, anyhow::Error> {
+    let integration_test_bin = integration_test_bin
+        .to_str()
+        .context("illegal path to integration test binary")?;
+    let args = match integration_test_args {
+        [] => String::new(),
+        _ => std::iter::once(":\"")
+            .chain(itertools::Itertools::intersperse(
+                integration_test_args.iter().map(|v| v.as_str()),
+                " ",
+            ))
+            .chain(std::iter::once("\""))
+            .collect_vec()
+            .join(""),
+    };
+    let initramfs_path = PathBuf::from(kerneltest_root).join("initramfs.cpio");
+    which::which(BLUEBOX_BINARY)
+        .with_context(|| format!("{BLUEBOX_BINARY} not found"))
+        .context("try installing with `go install github.com/florianl/bluebox@latest`")?;
+    let args = format!("{integration_test_bin}{args}");
+    match Command::new(BLUEBOX_BINARY)
+        .arg("-e")
+        .arg(&args)
+        .arg("-o")
+        .arg(&initramfs_path)
+        .status()
+    {
+        Err(err) => Err(anyhow::anyhow!("failed to build initramfs: {}", err)),
+        Ok(status) if !status.success() => Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
+            "failed to build initramfs: status code {}",
+            status
+        )),
+        Ok(_) => Ok(initramfs_path),
+    }
+}
+
+fn get_kernel(kernel_version: &str, kerneltest_root: &Path) -> Result<PathBuf, anyhow::Error> {
+    let kernel_name = format!("linux-{}.bz", kernel_version);
+    let image_path = PathBuf::from(kerneltest_root)
+        .join("kernels")
+        .join(kernel_name);
+    if image_path.exists() && image_path.is_file() {
+        return Ok(image_path);
+    }
+
+    let mut tmp = tempfile::NamedTempFile::new().context("creating temp file for kernel image")?;
+    let url = format!(
+        "https://github.com/cilium/ci-kernels/raw/a15c0b2aa7cf32640c03764fa79b0a815608ddce/linux-{kernel_version}.bz"
+    );
+
+    reqwest::blocking::get(url)
+        .context("fetching kernel")?
+        .copy_to(&mut tmp)
+        .context("writing kernel file")?;
+    tmp.persist_noclobber(&image_path)
+        .context(format!("persisting kernel file {:?}", &image_path))?;
+    Ok(image_path)
+}
+
+const QEMU_BINARY: &str = "qemu-system-x86_64";
+
+fn run(initramfs: &std::path::Path, kernel_image: &Path) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
+    which::which(QEMU_BINARY).with_context(|| format!("{QEMU_BINARY} not found"))?;
+    let args = vec![
+        "-no-reboot",
+        "-append",
+        "printk.devkmsg=on kernel.panic=-1 crashkernel=256M",
+        "-kernel",
+        kernel_image.to_str().context("illegal kernel image path")?,
+        "-initrd",
+        initramfs.to_str().context("illegal initramfs path")?,
+        "-nographic",
+        "-append",
+        "console=ttyS0",
+        "-m",
+        "1.5G",
+    ];
+    match Command::new(QEMU_BINARY).args(args).status() {
+        Err(err) => Err(anyhow::anyhow!("failed to run qemu: {}", err)),
+        Ok(status) if !status.success() => Err(anyhow::anyhow!("failed to run qemu: {}", status)),
+        Ok(_) => Ok(()),
+    }
+}
diff --git a/xtask/src/main.rs b/xtask/src/main.rs
index e50e8675..72db7f45 100644
--- a/xtask/src/main.rs
+++ b/xtask/src/main.rs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ mod build_test;
 mod codegen;
 mod docs;
 mod integration_test;
+mod kernel_test;
 
 pub(crate) mod utils;
 
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ enum Command {
     BuildIntegrationTest(build_test::Options),
     BuildIntegrationTestEbpf(build_ebpf::BuildEbpfOptions),
     IntegrationTest(integration_test::Options),
+    KernelTest(kernel_test::Options),
 }
 
 fn main() {
@@ -34,6 +36,7 @@ fn main() {
         BuildIntegrationTest(opts) => build_test::build_test(opts),
         BuildIntegrationTestEbpf(opts) => build_ebpf::build_ebpf(opts),
         IntegrationTest(opts) => integration_test::run(opts),
+        KernelTest(opts) => kernel_test::kernel_test(opts),
     };
 
     if let Err(e) = ret {