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Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: USN-2978-2 Critical Kernel Denial Of Service Advisory

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Calendar Grey May 16, 2016
Scroller Ubuntu
Explore essential patches for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS kernel security flaws and the significance of keeping your system up to date.
Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Summary

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Software Description:

- linux-lts-wily: Linux hardware enablement kernel from Wily for Trusty

Details:

USN-2978-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu 15.10.

This update provides the corresponding updates for the Linux Hardware

Enablement (HWE) kernel from Ubuntu 15.10 for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

David Matlack discovered that the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

implementation in the Linux kernel did not properly restrict variable

Memory Type Range Registers (MTRR) in KVM guests. A privileged user in a

guest VM could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) in the

host, expose sensitive information from the host, or possibly gain

administrative privileges in the host. (CVE-2016-3713)

Philip Pettersson discovered that the Linux kernel's ASN.1 DER decoder did

not properly process certificate files with tags of indefinite length. A

local unprivileged attacker could use this to cause a denial of service

(sys...

Read the Full Advisory

Update Instructions

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

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:
  linux-image-4.2.0-36-generic    4.2.0-36.42~14.04.1
  linux-image-4.2.0-36-generic-lpae  4.2.0-36.42~14.04.1
  linux-image-4.2.0-36-lowlatency  4.2.0-36.42~14.04.1
  linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc-e500mc  4.2.0-36.42~14.04.1
  linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc-smp  4.2.0-36.42~14.04.1
  linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc64-emb  4.2.0-36.42~14.04.1
  linux-image-4.2.0-36-powerpc64-smp  4.2.0-36.42~14.04.1

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-wily, linux-virtual,
linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform
this as well.

References

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-2978-2

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-2978-1

CVE-2016-0758, CVE-2016-3713

Severity
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May 16, 2016

Package Information

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