USN-5337-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

22 March 2022

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux 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

  • linux - Linux kernel
  • linux-aws - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems
  • linux-aws-5.13 - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems
  • linux-gcp - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-gcp-5.13 - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-hwe-5.13 - Linux hardware enablement (HWE) kernel
  • linux-kvm - Linux kernel for cloud environments
  • linux-oracle - Linux kernel for Oracle Cloud systems
  • linux-raspi - Linux kernel for Raspberry Pi systems

Details

It was discovered that the BPF verifier in the Linux kernel did not
properly restrict pointer types in certain situations. A local attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly
execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2022-23222)

Yiqi Sun and Kevin Wang discovered that the cgroups implementation in the
Linux kernel did not properly restrict access to the cgroups v1
release_agent feature. A local attacker could use this to gain
administrative privileges. (CVE-2022-0492)

Jürgen Groß discovered that the Xen subsystem within the Linux kernel did
not adequately limit the number of events driver domains (unprivileged PV
backends) could send to other guest VMs. An attacker in a driver domain
could use this to cause a denial of service in other guest VMs.
(CVE-2021-28711, CVE-2021-28712, CVE-2021-28713)

Jürgen Groß discovered that the Xen network backend driver in the Linux
kernel did not adequately limit the amount of queued packets when a guest
did not process them. An attacker in a guest VM can use this to cause a
denial of service (excessive kernel memory consumption) in the network
backend domain. (CVE-2021-28714, CVE-2021-28715)

Szymon Heidrich discovered that the USB Gadget subsystem in the Linux
kernel did not properly restrict the size of control requests for certain
gadget types, leading to possible out of bounds reads or writes. A local
attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or
possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-39685)

It was discovered that a race condition existed in the poll implementation
in the Linux kernel, resulting in a use-after-free vulnerability. A local
attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or
possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-39698)

It was discovered that the simulated networking device driver for the Linux
kernel did not properly initialize memory in certain situations. A local
attacker could use this to expose sensitive information (kernel memory).
(CVE-2021-4135)

Eric Biederman discovered that the cgroup process migration implementation
in the Linux kernel did not perform permission checks correctly in some
situations. A local attacker could possibly use this to gain administrative
privileges. (CVE-2021-4197)

Brendan Dolan-Gavitt discovered that the aQuantia AQtion Ethernet device
driver in the Linux kernel did not properly validate meta-data coming from
the device. A local attacker who can control an emulated device can use
this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute
arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-43975)

It was discovered that the ARM Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)
subsystem in the Linux kernel contained a race condition leading to a use-
after-free vulnerability. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial
of service or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-44733)

It was discovered that the Phone Network protocol (PhoNet) implementation
in the Linux kernel did not properly perform reference counting in some
error conditions. A local attacker could possibly use this to cause a
denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2021-45095)

It was discovered that the eBPF verifier in the Linux kernel did not
properly perform bounds checking on mov32 operations. A local attacker
could use this to expose sensitive information (kernel pointer addresses).
(CVE-2021-45402)

It was discovered that the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) protocol
implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly deallocate memory in
some error conditions. A local attacker could possibly use this to cause a
denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2021-45480)

It was discovered that the BPF subsystem in the Linux kernel did not
properly track pointer types on atomic fetch operations in some situations.
A local attacker could use this to expose sensitive information (kernel
pointer addresses). (CVE-2022-0264)

It was discovered that the TIPC Protocol implementation in the Linux kernel
did not properly initialize memory in some situations. A local attacker
could use this to expose sensitive information (kernel memory).
(CVE-2022-0382)

Samuel Page discovered that the Transparent Inter-Process Communication
(TIPC) protocol implementation in the Linux kernel contained a stack-based
buffer overflow. A remote attacker could use this to cause a denial of
service (system crash) for systems that have a TIPC bearer configured.
(CVE-2022-0435)

It was discovered that the KVM implementation for s390 systems in the Linux
kernel did not properly prevent memory operations on PVM guests that were
in non-protected mode. A local attacker could use this to obtain
unauthorized memory write access. (CVE-2022-0516)

It was discovered that the ICMPv6 implementation in the Linux kernel did
not properly deallocate memory in certain situations. A remote attacker
could possibly use this to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion).
(CVE-2022-0742)

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 21.10
Ubuntu 20.04

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

Related notices

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