1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-3560-1

USN-3560-1: QEMU update

Publication date

7 February 2018

Overview

Spectre mitigations were added to QEMU.

Releases

Packages

  • qemu - Machine emulator and virtualizer

Details

It was discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution
and branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via sidechannel
attacks. This flaw is known as Spectre. An attacker in the guest could use
this to expose sensitive guest information, including kernel memory.

This update allows QEMU to expose new CPU features added by microcode
updates to guests on amd64, i386, and s390x. On amd64 and i386, new CPU
models that match the updated microcode features were added with an -IBRS
suffix. Certain environments will require guests to be switched manually to
the new CPU models after microcode updates have been applied to the host.

It was discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution
and branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via sidechannel
attacks. This flaw is known as Spectre. An attacker in the guest could use
this to expose sensitive guest information, including kernel memory.

This update allows QEMU to expose new CPU features added by microcode
updates to guests on amd64, i386, and s390x. On amd64 and i386, new CPU
models that match the updated microcode features were added with an -IBRS
suffix. Certain environments will require guests to be switched manually to
the new CPU models after microcode updates have been applied to the host.

Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to restart all QEMU virtual machines to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
17.10 artful qemu-system –  1:2.10+dfsg-0ubuntu3.4
qemu-system-s390x –  1:2.10+dfsg-0ubuntu3.4
qemu-system-x86 –  1:2.10+dfsg-0ubuntu3.4
16.04 xenial qemu-system –  1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu10.20
qemu-system-s390x –  1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu10.20
qemu-system-x86 –  1:2.5+dfsg-5ubuntu10.20
14.04 trusty qemu-system –  2.0.0+dfsg-2ubuntu1.38
qemu-system-x86 –  2.0.0+dfsg-2ubuntu1.38

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References

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