Your submission was sent successfully! Close

Thank you for contacting us. A member of our team will be in touch shortly. Close

You have successfully unsubscribed! Close

Thank you for signing up for our newsletter!
In these regular emails you will find the latest updates about Ubuntu and upcoming events where you can meet our team.Close

USN-2979-2: Linux kernel (Xenial HWE) vulnerabilities

16 May 2016

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

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

Releases

Packages

Details

USN-2979-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu 16.04
LTS. This update provides the corresponding updates for the Linux
Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for Ubuntu
14.04 LTS.

David Matlack discovered that the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly restrict variable
Memory Type Range Registers (MTRR) in KVM guests. A privileged user in a
guest VM could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) in the
host, expose sensitive information from the host, or possibly gain
administrative privileges in the host. (CVE-2016-3713)

Philip Pettersson discovered that the Linux kernel's ASN.1 DER decoder did
not properly process certificate files with tags of indefinite length. A
local unprivileged attacker could use this to cause a denial of service
(system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code with administrative
privileges. (CVE-2016-0758)

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 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.
Unless you manually uninstalled the standard kernel metapackages
(e.g. linux-generic, linux-generic-lts-xenial, linux-virtual,
linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform
this as well.

References

Related notices

  • USN-2975-1: linux-image-3.13.0-86-lowlatency, linux-image-3.13.0-86-powerpc-e500, linux-image-3.13.0-86-generic-lpae, linux, linux-image-3.13.0-86-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-extra-3.13.0-86-generic, linux-image-3.13.0-86-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-3.13.0-86-generic, linux-image-3.13.0-86-powerpc-smp, linux-image-3.13.0-86-powerpc64-smp
  • USN-2978-2: linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-4.2.0-36-generic, linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-4.2.0-36-lowlatency, linux-image-extra-4.2.0-36-generic, linux-lts-wily, linux-image-4.2.0-36-generic-lpae, linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc-smp
  • USN-2976-1: linux-lts-utopic, linux-image-3.16.0-71-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-3.16.0-71-generic, linux-image-3.16.0-71-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-3.16.0-71-lowlatency, linux-image-3.16.0-71-generic-lpae, linux-image-3.16.0-71-powerpc-smp, linux-image-extra-3.16.0-71-generic, linux-image-3.16.0-71-powerpc64-smp
  • USN-2979-4: linux-snapdragon, linux-image-4.4.0-1013-snapdragon
  • USN-2977-1: linux-image-extra-3.19.0-59-generic, linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-3.19.0-59-generic-lpae, linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc-smp, linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-3.19.0-59-lowlatency, linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc64-smp, linux-lts-vivid, linux-image-3.19.0-59-generic
  • USN-2978-3: linux-raspi2, linux-image-4.2.0-1029-raspi2
  • USN-2979-1: linux-image-4.4.0-22-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-4.4.0-22-powerpc-smp, linux-image-extra-4.4.0-22-generic, linux-image-4.4.0-22-generic-lpae, linux, linux-image-4.4.0-22-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-4.4.0-22-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-4.4.0-22-lowlatency, linux-image-4.4.0-22-generic
  • USN-2975-2: linux-lts-trusty, linux-image-3.13.0-86-generic, linux-image-3.13.0-86-generic-lpae
  • USN-2979-3: linux-raspi2, linux-image-4.4.0-1010-raspi2
  • USN-2978-1: linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc64-emb, linux-image-4.2.0-36-generic, linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc-e500mc, linux-image-4.2.0-36-lowlatency, linux, linux-image-4.2.0-36-generic-lpae, linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc-smp

Join the discussion

Need help with your security needs?

Ubuntu Pro provides up to ten-year security coverage for over 23,000 open-source packages within the Ubuntu Main and Universe repositories.

Talk to an expert to find out what would work best for you

Further reading