USN-2421-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities
25 November 2014
Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.
Releases
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.