USN-4426-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

27 July 2020

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.

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Releases

Packages

  • linux - Linux kernel
  • linux-aws - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems
  • linux-aws-hwe - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS-HWE) systems
  • linux-azure - Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure Cloud systems
  • linux-azure-4.15 - Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure Cloud systems
  • linux-gcp - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-gcp-4.15 - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-gke-4.15 - Linux kernel for Google Container Engine (GKE) systems
  • linux-hwe - Linux hardware enablement (HWE) kernel
  • linux-kvm - Linux kernel for cloud environments
  • linux-oem - Linux kernel for OEM systems
  • linux-oracle - Linux kernel for Oracle Cloud systems
  • linux-raspi2 - Linux kernel for Raspberry Pi (V7) systems
  • linux-snapdragon - Linux kernel for Qualcomm Snapdragon processors

Details

Jason A. Donenfeld discovered that the ACPI implementation in the Linux
kernel did not properly restrict loading SSDT code from an EFI variable. A
privileged attacker could use this to bypass Secure Boot lockdown
restrictions and execute arbitrary code in the kernel. (CVE-2019-20908)

Fan Yang discovered that the mremap implementation in the Linux kernel did
not properly handle DAX Huge Pages. A local attacker with access to DAX
storage could use this to gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2020-10757)

Mauricio Faria de Oliveira discovered that the aufs implementation in the
Linux kernel improperly managed inode reference counts in the
vfsub_dentry_open() method. A local attacker could use this vulnerability
to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2020-11935)

Jason A. Donenfeld discovered that the ACPI implementation in the Linux
kernel did not properly restrict loading ACPI tables via configfs. A
privileged attacker could use this to bypass Secure Boot lockdown
restrictions and execute arbitrary code in the kernel. (CVE-2020-15780)

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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 18.04
Ubuntu 16.04

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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