USN-3597-2: Linux kernel (HWE) vulnerabilities

15 March 2018

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Releases

Packages

  • linux-hwe - Linux hardware enablement (HWE) kernel

Details

USN-3597-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu 17.10.
This update provides the corresponding updates for the Linux Hardware
Enablement (HWE) kernel from Ubuntu 17.10 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

USNS 3541-2 and 3523-2 provided mitigations for Spectre and Meltdown
(CVE-2017-5715, CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5754) for the i386, amd64,
and ppc64el architectures for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. This update provides
the corresponding mitigations for the arm64 architecture. Original
advisory details:

Jann Horn discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution
and indirect branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via
sidechannel attacks. This flaw is known as Meltdown. A local attacker could
use this to expose sensitive information, including kernel memory.
(CVE-2017-5754)

Jann Horn discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution
and branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via sidechannel
attacks. This flaw is known as Spectre. A local attacker could use this to
expose sensitive information, including kernel memory. (CVE-2017-5715,
CVE-2017-5753)

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 16.04

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make
all the necessary changes.

ATTENTION: Due to an unavoidable ABI change the kernel updates have
been given a new version number, which requires you to recompile and
reinstall all third party kernel modules you might have installed.
Unless you manually uninstalled the standard kernel metapackages
(e.g. linux-generic, linux-generic-lts-RELEASE, linux-virtual,
linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform
this as well.

References

Related notices

Join the discussion

Need help with your security needs?

Ubuntu Pro provides up to ten-year security coverage for over 23,000 open-source packages within the Ubuntu Main and Universe repositories.

Talk to an expert to find out what would work best for you

Further reading