USN-3762-2: Linux kernel (HWE) vulnerabilities

Releases

• Ubuntu 16.04 ESM

Packages

• linux-azure - Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure Cloud systems
• linux-gcp - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
• linux-hwe - Linux hardware enablement (HWE) kernel

Details

USN-3762-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu 18.04
LTS. This update provides the corresponding updates for the Linux
Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS for Ubuntu
16.04 LTS.

It was discovered that the VirtIO subsystem in the Linux kernel did not
properly initialize memory in some situations. A local attacker could use
this to possibly expose sensitive information (kernel memory).
(CVE-2018-1118)

Seunghun Han discovered an information leak in the ACPI handling code in
the Linux kernel when handling early termination of ACPI table loading. A
local attacker could use this to expose sensitive informal (kernel address
locations). (CVE-2017-13695)

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 16.04

• linux-image-4.15.0-34-generic - 4.15.0-34.37~16.04.1
• linux-image-4.15.0-34-generic-lpae - 4.15.0-34.37~16.04.1
• linux-image-4.15.0-34-lowlatency - 4.15.0-34.37~16.04.1

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

• CVE-2017-13695
• CVE-2018-1118

Related notices

• USN-3762-1
• USN-3696-2
• USN-3696-1