USN-2421-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Releases

• Ubuntu 14.10

Packages

• linux - Linux kernel

Details

A flaw was discovered in how the Linux kernel's KVM (Kernel Virtual
Machine) subsystem handles the CR4 control register at VM entry on Intel
processors. A local host OS user can exploit this to cause a denial of
service (kill arbitrary processes, or system disruption) by leveraging
/dev/kvm access. (CVE-2014-3690)

Don Bailey discovered a flaw in the LZO decompress algorithm used by the
Linux kernel. An attacker could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of
service (memory corruption or OOPS). (CVE-2014-4608)

Andy Lutomirski discovered that the Linux kernel was not checking the
CAP_SYS_ADMIN when remounting filesystems to read-only. A local user could
exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (loss of writability).
(CVE-2014-7975)

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 14.10

• linux-image-3.16.0-25-powerpc-smp - 3.16.0-25.33
• linux-image-3.16.0-25-powerpc-e500mc - 3.16.0-25.33
• linux-image-3.16.0-25-generic-lpae - 3.16.0-25.33
• linux-image-3.16.0-25-generic - 3.16.0-25.33
• linux-image-3.16.0-25-powerpc64-smp - 3.16.0-25.33
• linux-image-3.16.0-25-lowlatency - 3.16.0-25.33
• linux-image-3.16.0-25-powerpc64-emb - 3.16.0-25.33

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. If
you use linux-restricted-modules, you have to update that package as
well to get modules which work with the new kernel version. Unless you
manually uninstalled the standard kernel metapackages (e.g. linux-generic,
linux-server, linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically
perform this as well.

References

• CVE-2014-3690
• CVE-2014-4608
• CVE-2014-7975

Related notices

• USN-2419-1: linux-lts-trusty, linux-image-3.13.0-40-generic-lpae, linux-image-3.13.0-40-generic
• USN-2417-1: linux-image-3.2.0-72-generic, linux-image-3.2.0-72-virtual, linux-image-3.2.0-72-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-3.2.0-72-highbank, linux-image-3.2.0-72-omap, linux, linux-image-3.2.0-72-generic-pae, linux-image-3.2.0-72-powerpc-smp
• USN-2420-1: linux-image-3.13.0-40-generic-lpae, linux-image-3.13.0-40-lowlatency, linux-image-extra-3.13.0-40-generic, linux-image-3.13.0-40-generic, linux-image-3.13.0-40-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-3.13.0-40-powerpc64-emb, linux, linux-image-3.13.0-40-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-3.13.0-40-powerpc-smp, linux-image-3.13.0-40-powerpc-e500
• USN-2418-1: linux-ti-omap4, linux-image-3.2.0-1456-omap4
• USN-2416-1: linux-ec2, linux-image-2.6.32-372-ec2
• USN-2286-1: linux-image-3.8.0-44-generic, linux-lts-raring
• USN-2289-1: linux-image-3.11.0-26-generic-lpae, linux, linux-image-3.11.0-26-generic
• USN-2415-1: linux-image-2.6.32-68-preempt, linux-image-2.6.32-68-virtual, linux-image-2.6.32-68-sparc64, linux-image-2.6.32-68-versatile, linux-image-2.6.32-68-lpia, linux-image-2.6.32-68-powerpc, linux-image-2.6.32-68-386, linux-image-2.6.32-68-ia64, linux, linux-image-2.6.32-68-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.32-68-sparc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.32-68-server, linux-image-2.6.32-68-generic-pae, linux-image-2.6.32-68-generic, linux-image-2.6.32-68-powerpc-smp