USN-3127-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

11 November 2016

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

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Releases

Packages

Details

It was discovered that the compression handling code in the Advanced Linux
Sound Architecture (ALSA) subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly
check for an integer overflow. A local attacker could use this to cause a
denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2014-9904)

Kirill A. Shutemov discovered that memory manager in the Linux kernel did
not properly handle anonymous pages. A local attacker could use this to
cause a denial of service or possibly gain administrative privileges.
(CVE-2015-3288)

Vitaly Kuznetsov discovered that the Linux kernel did not properly suppress
hugetlbfs support in X86 paravirtualized guests. An attacker in the guest
OS could cause a denial of service (guest system crash). (CVE-2016-3961)

Ondrej Kozina discovered that the keyring interface in the Linux kernel
contained a buffer overflow when displaying timeout events via the
/proc/keys interface. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of
service (system crash). (CVE-2016-7042)

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 14.04

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

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