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USN-2598-1: Linux kernel vulnerability

5 May 2015

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

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Releases

Packages

Details

A race condition between chown() and execve() was discovered in the Linux
kernel. A local attacker could exploit this race by using chown on a
setuid-user-binary to gain administrative privileges.

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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 14.04

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. 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

Related notices

  • USN-2600-1: linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic-lpae, linux, linux-image-3.16.0-37-lowlatency, linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc-smp, linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic, linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc-e500mc
  • USN-2612-1: linux-image-3.2.0-1464-omap4, linux-ti-omap4
  • USN-2596-1: linux-image-3.2.0-83-virtual, linux-image-3.2.0-83-highbank, linux-image-3.2.0-83-generic-pae, linux-image-3.2.0-83-powerpc64-smp, linux, linux-image-3.2.0-83-generic, linux-image-3.2.0-83-omap, linux-image-3.2.0-83-powerpc-smp
  • USN-2583-1: linux-image-2.6.32-74-powerpc, linux-image-2.6.32-74-sparc64, linux-image-2.6.32-74-generic-pae, linux-image-2.6.32-74-386, linux-image-2.6.32-74-server, linux-image-2.6.32-74-versatile, linux-image-2.6.32-74-virtual, linux, linux-image-2.6.32-74-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.32-74-generic, linux-image-2.6.32-74-powerpc-smp, linux-image-2.6.32-74-lpia, linux-image-2.6.32-74-sparc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.32-74-preempt, linux-image-2.6.32-74-ia64
  • USN-2599-1: linux-image-extra-3.16.0-37-generic, linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic-lpae, linux-image-3.16.0-37-lowlatency, linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc64-smp, linux-lts-utopic, linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc-smp, linux-image-3.16.0-37-generic, linux-image-3.16.0-37-powerpc-e500mc
  • USN-2597-1: linux-image-3.13.0-52-generic, linux-lts-trusty, linux-image-3.13.0-52-generic-lpae
  • USN-2584-1: linux-ec2, linux-image-2.6.32-377-ec2
  • USN-2601-1: linux-image-3.19.0-16-generic-lpae, linux-image-3.19.0-16-powerpc-smp, linux, linux-image-3.19.0-16-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-3.19.0-16-generic, linux-image-3.19.0-16-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-3.19.0-16-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-3.19.0-16-lowlatency

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Further reading