USN-6131-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

1 June 2023

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.

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Releases

Packages

  • linux - Linux kernel
  • linux-aws - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems
  • linux-azure - Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure Cloud systems
  • linux-azure-5.4 - Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure cloud systems
  • linux-gcp - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-gcp-5.4 - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-gke - Linux kernel for Google Container Engine (GKE) systems
  • linux-gkeop - Linux kernel for Google Container Engine (GKE) systems
  • linux-hwe-5.4 - Linux hardware enablement (HWE) kernel
  • linux-ibm - Linux kernel for IBM cloud systems
  • linux-ibm-5.4 - Linux kernel for IBM cloud systems
  • linux-kvm - Linux kernel for cloud environments
  • linux-oracle - Linux kernel for Oracle Cloud systems
  • linux-oracle-5.4 - Linux kernel for Oracle Cloud systems

Details

Patryk Sondej and Piotr Krysiuk discovered that a race condition existed in
the netfilter subsystem of the Linux kernel when processing batch requests,
leading to a use-after-free vulnerability. A local attacker could use this
to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary
code. (CVE-2023-32233)

Gwangun Jung discovered that the Quick Fair Queueing scheduler
implementation in the Linux kernel contained an out-of-bounds write
vulnerability. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service
(system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2023-31436)

Reima Ishii discovered that the nested KVM implementation for Intel x86
processors in the Linux kernel did not properly validate control registers
in certain situations. An attacker in a guest VM could use this to cause a
denial of service (guest crash). (CVE-2023-30456)

It was discovered that the Broadcom FullMAC USB WiFi driver in the Linux
kernel did not properly perform data buffer size validation in some
situations. A physically proximate attacker could use this to craft a
malicious USB device that when inserted, could cause a denial of service
(system crash) or possibly expose sensitive information. (CVE-2023-1380)

Jean-Baptiste Cayrou discovered that the shiftfs file system in the Ubuntu
Linux kernel contained a race condition when handling inode locking in some
situations. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service
(kernel deadlock). (CVE-2023-2612)

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 20.04
Ubuntu 18.04

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.