USN-4342-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

30 April 2020

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.

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Details

Al Viro discovered that the Linux kernel for s390x systems did not properly
perform page table upgrades for kernel sections that use secondary address
mode. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash) or execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2020-11884)

It was discovered that the Intel Wi-Fi driver in the Linux kernel did not
properly check for errors in some situations. A local attacker could
possibly use this to cause a denial of service (system crash).
(CVE-2019-16234)

Tristan Madani discovered that the block I/O tracing implementation in the
Linux kernel contained a race condition. A local attacker could use this to
cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly expose sensitive
information. (CVE-2019-19768)

It was discovered that the vhost net driver in the Linux kernel contained a
stack buffer overflow. A local attacker with the ability to perform ioctl()
calls on /dev/vhost-net could use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash). (CVE-2020-10942)

It was discovered that the virtual terminal implementation in the Linux
kernel contained a race condition. A local attacker could possibly use this
to cause a denial of service (system crash) or expose sensitive
information. (CVE-2020-8648)

Shijie Luo discovered that the ext4 file system implementation in the Linux
kernel did not properly check for a too-large journal size. An attacker
could use this to construct a malicious ext4 image that, when mounted,
could cause a denial of service (soft lockup). (CVE-2020-8992)

Jordy Zomer discovered that the floppy driver in the Linux kernel did not
properly check for errors in some situations. A local attacker could
possibly use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly
expose sensitive information. (CVE-2020-9383)

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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.

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 19.10
Ubuntu 18.04

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

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