1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-3331-1

USN-3331-1: Linux kernel (AWS) vulnerability

Publication date

22 June 2017

Overview

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

Releases

Packages

  • linux-aws - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems

Details

It was discovered that the stack guard page for processes in the Linux
kernel was not sufficiently large enough to prevent overlapping with the
heap. An attacker could leverage this with another vulnerability to execute
arbitrary code and gain administrative privileges

It was discovered that the stack guard page for processes in the Linux
kernel was not sufficiently large enough to prevent overlapping with the
heap. An attacker could leverage this with another vulnerability to execute
arbitrary code and gain administrative privileges

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. 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.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
16.04 xenial linux-image-4.4.0-1020-aws –  4.4.0-1020.29

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References

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