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USN-679-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

27 November 2008

Linux kernel vulnerabilities

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Details

It was discovered that the Xen hypervisor block driver did not correctly
validate requests. A user with root privileges in a guest OS could make a
malicious IO request with a large number of blocks that would crash the
host OS, leading to a denial of service. This only affected Ubuntu 7.10.
(CVE-2007-5498)

It was discovered the the i915 video driver did not correctly validate
memory addresses. A local attacker could exploit this to remap memory that
could cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue did
not affect Ubuntu 6.06 and was previous fixed for Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 in
USN-659-1. Ubuntu 8.10 has now been corrected as well. (CVE-2008-3831)

David Watson discovered that the kernel did not correctly strip permissions
when creating files in setgid directories. A local user could exploit this
to gain additional group privileges. This issue only affected Ubuntu 6.06.
(CVE-2008-4210)

Olaf Kirch and Miklos Szeredi discovered that the Linux kernel did
not correctly reject the "append" flag when handling file splice
requests. A local attacker could bypass append mode and make changes to
arbitrary locations in a file. This issue only affected Ubuntu 7.10 and
8.04. (CVE-2008-4554)

It was discovered that the SCTP stack did not correctly handle INIT-ACK. A
remote user could exploit this by sending specially crafted SCTP traffic
which would trigger a crash in the system, leading to a denial of service.
This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10. (CVE-2008-4576)

It was discovered that the SCTP stack did not correctly handle bad packet
lengths. A remote user could exploit this by sending specially crafted SCTP
traffic which would trigger a crash in the system, leading to a denial of
service. This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10. (CVE-2008-4618)

Eric Sesterhenn discovered multiple flaws in the HFS+ filesystem. If a
local user or automated system were tricked into mounting a malicious HFS+
filesystem, the system could crash, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2008-4933, CVE-2008-4934, CVE-2008-5025)

It was discovered that the Unix Socket handler did not correctly process
the SCM_RIGHTS message. A local attacker could make a malicious socket
request that would crash the system, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2008-5029)

It was discovered that the driver for simple i2c audio interfaces did not
correctly validate certain function pointers. A local user could exploit
this to gain root privileges or crash the system, leading to a denial of
service. (CVE-2008-5033)

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 8.10
Ubuntu 8.04
Ubuntu 7.10
Ubuntu 6.06

After a standard system upgrade you need to reboot your computer to
effect 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-659-1: linux-image-2.6.15-52-686, linux-image-2.6.15-52-server, linux-image-2.6.15-52-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.24-21-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-xeon, linux-image-2.6.15-52-sparc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.22-15-sparc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa64, linux-image-2.6.22-15-ume, linux-image-2.6.22-15-powerpc, linux-image-2.6.15-52-powerpc, linux-image-2.6.24-21-virtual, linux-image-2.6.24-21-generic, linux-image-2.6.15-52-itanium-smp, linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa32-smp, linux-image-2.6.24-21-386, linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-k8, linux-image-2.6.24-21-server, linux-image-2.6.15-52-sparc64, linux-image-2.6.22-15-386, linux-image-2.6.24-21-lpiacompat, linux-image-2.6.22-15-virtual, linux-image-2.6.24-21-hppa32, linux-image-2.6.22-15-lpiacompat, linux-image-2.6.22-15-rt, linux-image-2.6.24-21-xen, linux-image-2.6.24-21-rt, linux-image-2.6.15-52-mckinley, linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-generic, linux-source-2.6.22, linux-image-2.6.15-52-k7, linux-image-2.6.22-15-mckinley, linux, linux-image-2.6.24-21-hppa64, linux-image-2.6.22-15-powerpc-smp, linux-image-2.6.15-52-server-bigiron, linux-image-2.6.24-21-powerpc-smp, linux-source-2.6.15, linux-image-2.6.22-15-itanium, linux-image-2.6.24-21-sparc64, linux-image-2.6.22-15-cell, linux-image-2.6.15-52-386, linux-image-2.6.15-52-mckinley-smp, linux-image-2.6.22-15-xen, linux-image-2.6.24-21-mckinley, linux-image-2.6.24-21-powerpc, linux-image-2.6.22-15-server, linux-image-2.6.22-15-generic, linux-image-2.6.22-15-sparc64, linux-image-2.6.15-52-itanium, linux-image-2.6.24-21-itanium, linux-image-2.6.22-15-lpia, linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-server, linux-image-2.6.15-52-powerpc-smp, linux-image-2.6.22-15-powerpc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.24-21-lpia, linux-image-2.6.24-21-openvz, linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa64-smp, linux-image-2.6.24-21-sparc64-smp, linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa32, linux-image-2.6.22-15-hppa64, linux-image-2.6.22-15-hppa32

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