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Ubuntu 16.04 LTS: USN-3488-1 Critical: Azure Kernel DoS Threat

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Calendar Grey November 21, 2017
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A vulnerability in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS may enable a malicious user to either cause the system to become unresponsive or obtain elevated privileges.
The system could be made to crash or run programs as an administrator.

Summary

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

Software Description:

- linux-azure: Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure Cloud systems

Details:

It was discovered that the KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel did not

properly keep track of nested levels in guest page tables. A local attacker

in a guest VM could use this to cause a denial of service (host OS crash)

or possibly execute arbitrary code in the host OS.

Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory denial of service kernel issue ubuntu administrative access host OS crash azure

Update Instructions

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

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS:
  linux-image-4.11.0-1015-azure   4.11.0-1015.15
  linux-image-azure               4.11.0.1015.15

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

CVE-2017-12188

Severity
critical
Lowest
Low
Medium
High
Critical

November 21, 2017

Topics%20covered

Topics Covered

security advisory denial of service kernel issue ubuntu administrative access host OS crash azure

Package Information

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-azure/4.11.0-1015.15

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