USN-4489-1: Linux kernel vulnerability

08 September 2020

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

Releases

Packages

Details

Or Cohen discovered that the AF_PACKET implementation in the Linux
kernel did not properly perform bounds checking in some situations. A
local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code.

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 20.04
Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu 16.04
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-RELEASE, linux-virtual,
linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform
this as well.

References

Join the discussion

Canonical is offering Extended Security Maintenance

Canonical is offering Ubuntu 14.04 Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) for security fixes and essential packages.

Find out more about ESM

Further reading