1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-2462-1

USN-2462-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Publication date

13 January 2015

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Releases

Packages

Details

Andy Lutomirski discovered that the Linux kernel does not properly handle
faults associated with the Stack Segment (SS) register in the x86
architecture. A local attacker could exploit this flaw to gain
administrative privileges. (CVE-2014-9322)

Lars Bull reported a race condition in the PIT (programmable interrupt
timer) emulation in the KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) subsystem of the Linux
kernel. A local guest user with access to PIT i/o ports could exploit this
flaw to cause a denial of service (crash) on the host. (CVE-2014-3611)

Lars Bull and Nadav Amit reported a flaw in how KVM (the Kernel Virtual
Machine) handles noncanonical writes to certain MSR registers. A privileged
guest user can exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (kernel
panic) on the host. (CVE-2014-3610)

Andy Lutomirski discovered that the Linux kernel does not properly handle
faults associated with the Stack Segment (SS) register in the x86
architecture. A local attacker could exploit this flaw to gain
administrative privileges. (CVE-2014-9322)

Lars Bull reported a race condition in the PIT (programmable interrupt
timer) emulation in the KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) subsystem of the Linux
kernel. A local guest user with access to PIT i/o ports could exploit this
flaw to cause a denial of service (crash) on the host. (CVE-2014-3611)

Lars Bull and Nadav Amit reported a flaw in how KVM (the Kernel Virtual
Machine) handles noncanonical writes to certain MSR registers. A privileged
guest user can exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (kernel
panic) on the host. (CVE-2014-3610)

Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

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.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
10.04 lucid linux-image-2.6.32-71-powerpc-smp –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-versatile –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-server –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-powerpc64-smp –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-lpia –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-386 –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-generic-pae –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-sparc64-smp –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-preempt –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-sparc64 –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-ia64 –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-virtual –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-generic –  2.6.32-71.138
linux-image-2.6.32-71-powerpc –  2.6.32-71.138

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References

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