USN-3848-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

20 December 2018

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Releases

Packages

Details

It was discovered that a double free existed in the AMD GPIO driver in the
Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service
(system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-18174)

It was discovered that an integer overrun vulnerability existed in the
POSIX timers implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use
this to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2018-12896)

Kanda Motohiro discovered that writing extended attributes to an XFS file
system in the Linux kernel in certain situations could cause an error
condition to occur. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of
service. (CVE-2018-18690)

It was discovered that an integer overflow vulnerability existed in the
CDROM driver of the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to expose
sensitive information (kernel memory). (CVE-2018-18710)

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 16.04

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.