USN-1775-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

22 March 2013

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

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Releases

Packages

Details

A flaw was reported in the permission checks done by the Linux kernel for
/dev/cpu/*/msr. A local root user with all capabilities dropped could
exploit this flaw to execute code with full root capabilities.
(CVE-2013-0268)

A flaw was discovered in the Linux kernels handling of memory ranges with
PROT_NONE when transparent hugepages are in use. An unprivileged local user
could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (crash the system).
(CVE-2013-0309)

A flaw was discovered on the Linux kernel's VFAT filesystem driver when a
disk is mounted with the utf8 option (this is the default on Ubuntu). On a
system where disks/images can be auto-mounted or a FAT filesystem is
mounted an unprivileged user can exploit the flaw to gain root privileges.
(CVE-2013-1773)

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.

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 10.04

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.