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Ubuntu 12.04 LTS USN-1610-1 Critical: Kernel Privilege Escalation

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Calendar Grey October 12, 2012
Scroller Ubuntu
A kernel patch in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS addresses a security flaw enabling unapproved elevated permissions.
The system could be made to perform privileged actions as an administrator.

Summary

The system could be made to perform privileged actions as an administrator.

Software Description:

- linux: Linux kernel

Details:

Pablo Neira Ayuso discovered a flaw in the credentials of netlink messages.

An unprivileged local attacker could exploit this by getting a netlink

based service, that relies on netlink credentials, to perform privileged

actions.

Update Instructions

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

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
  linux-image-3.2.0-32-generic    3.2.0-32.51
  linux-image-3.2.0-32-generic-pae  3.2.0-32.51
  linux-image-3.2.0-32-highbank   3.2.0-32.51
  linux-image-3.2.0-32-omap       3.2.0-32.51
  linux-image-3.2.0-32-powerpc-smp  3.2.0-32.51
  linux-image-3.2.0-32-powerpc64-smp  3.2.0-32.51
  linux-image-3.2.0-32-virtual    3.2.0-32.51

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.

References

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-1610-1

CVE-2012-3520

Severity
critical
Lowest
Low
Medium
High
Critical

October 12, 2012

Package Information

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