1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-2777-1

USN-2777-1: Linux kernel (Utopic HWE) vulnerabilities

Publication date

20 October 2015

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Releases

Packages

Details

It was discovered that virtio networking in the Linux kernel did not handle
fragments correctly, leading to kernel memory corruption. A remote attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly
execute code with administrative privileges. (CVE-2015-5156)

Benjamin Randazzo discovered an information leak in the md (multiple
device) driver when the bitmap_info.file is disabled. A local privileged
attacker could use this to obtain sensitive information from the kernel.
(CVE-2015-5697)

Marc-André Lureau discovered that the vhost driver did not properly
release the userspace provided log file descriptor. A privileged attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service (resource exhaustion).
(CVE-2015-6252)

It was discovered that the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) implementation
in...

It was discovered that virtio networking in the Linux kernel did not handle
fragments correctly, leading to kernel memory corruption. A remote attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly
execute code with administrative privileges. (CVE-2015-5156)

Benjamin Randazzo discovered an information leak in the md (multiple
device) driver when the bitmap_info.file is disabled. A local privileged
attacker could use this to obtain sensitive information from the kernel.
(CVE-2015-5697)

Marc-André Lureau discovered that the vhost driver did not properly
release the userspace provided log file descriptor. A privileged attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service (resource exhaustion).
(CVE-2015-6252)

It was discovered that the Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) implementation
in the Linux kernel did not verify sockets were properly bound before
attempting to send a message, which could cause a NULL pointer dereference.
An attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash).
(CVE-2015-6937)

Ben Hutchings discovered that the Advanced Union Filesystem (aufs) for the
Linux kernel did not correctly handle references of memory mapped files
from an aufs mount. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of
service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code with
administrative privileges. (CVE-2015-7312)

Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

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. If you use linux-restricted-modules, you have to update that package as well to get modules which work with the new kernel version. Unless you manually uninstalled the standard kernel metapackages (e.g. linux-generic, linux-server, linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform this as well.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
14.04 trusty linux-image-3.16.0-51-generic –  3.16.0-51.69~14.04.1
linux-image-3.16.0-51-generic-lpae –  3.16.0-51.69~14.04.1
linux-image-3.16.0-51-lowlatency –  3.16.0-51.69~14.04.1
linux-image-3.16.0-51-powerpc-e500mc –  3.16.0-51.69~14.04.1
linux-image-3.16.0-51-powerpc-smp –  3.16.0-51.69~14.04.1
linux-image-3.16.0-51-powerpc64-emb –  3.16.0-51.69~14.04.1
linux-image-3.16.0-51-powerpc64-smp –  3.16.0-51.69~14.04.1

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References

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