USN-3470-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

31 October 2017

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.

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Releases

Packages

Details

Qian Zhang discovered a heap-based buffer overflow in the tipc_msg_build()
function in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use to cause a denial
of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code with
administrative privileges. (CVE-2016-8632)

Dmitry Vyukov discovered that a race condition existed in the timerfd
subsystem of the Linux kernel when handling might_cancel queuing. A local
attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or
possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-10661)

It was discovered that the Flash-Friendly File System (f2fs) implementation
in the Linux kernel did not properly validate superblock metadata. A local
attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or
possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-10662, CVE-2017-10663)

Anthony Perard discovered that the Xen virtual block driver did not
properly initialize some data structures before passing them to user space.
A local attacker in a guest VM could use this to expose sensitive
information from the host OS or other guest VMs. (CVE-2017-10911)

It was discovered that a use-after-free vulnerability existed in the POSIX
message queue implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could
use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute
arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-11176)

Dave Chinner discovered that the XFS filesystem did not enforce that the
realtime inode flag was settable only on filesystems on a realtime device.
A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash). (CVE-2017-14340)

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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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