USN-3819-1: Linux kernel vulnerability

14 November 2018

The system could be made to crash or run programs as an administrator.

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Releases

Packages

  • linux - Linux kernel
  • linux-aws - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems
  • linux-gcp - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-kvm - Linux kernel for cloud environments
  • linux-raspi2 - Linux kernel for Raspberry Pi 2

Details

Felix Wilhelm discovered that the Xen netback driver in the Linux kernel
did not properly perform input validation in some situations. An attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly
execute arbitrary code.

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 18.10

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

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