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[USN-2396-1] Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Posted on 31 October 2014
Ubuntu Security

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Ubuntu Security Notice USN-2396-1
October 31, 2014

linux vulnerabilities
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A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 14.10

Summary:

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Software Description:
- linux: Linux kernel

Details:

Nadav Amit reported that the KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) mishandles
noncanonical addresses when emulating instructions that change the rip
(Instruction Pointer). A guest user with access to I/O or the MMIO can us=
e
this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) of the guest.
(CVE-2014-3647)

A flaw was discovered with the handling of the invept instruction in the
KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) subsystem of the Linux kernel. An unprivileg=
ed
guest user could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (system
crash) on the guest. (CVE-2014-3646)

Lars Bull reported a race condition in the PIT (programmable interrupt
timer) emulation in the KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) subsystem of the Lin=
ux
kernel. A local guest user with access to PIT i/o ports could exploit thi=
s
flaw to cause a denial of service (crash) on the host. (CVE-2014-3611)

Lars Bull and Nadav Amit reported a flaw in how KVM (the Kernel Virtual
Machine) handles noncanonical writes to certain MSR registers. A privileg=
ed
guest user can exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (kernel
panic) on the host. (CVE-2014-3610)

Update instructions:

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

Ubuntu 14.10:
linux-image-3.16.0-24-generic 3.16.0-24.32
linux-image-3.16.0-24-generic-lpae 3.16.0-24.32
linux-image-3.16.0-24-lowlatency 3.16.0-24.32
linux-image-3.16.0-24-powerpc-e500mc 3.16.0-24.32
linux-image-3.16.0-24-powerpc-smp 3.16.0-24.32
linux-image-3.16.0-24-powerpc64-emb 3.16.0-24.32
linux-image-3.16.0-24-powerpc64-smp 3.16.0-24.32

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. 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 automaticall=
y
perform this as well.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-2396-1
CVE-2014-3610, CVE-2014-3611, CVE-2014-3646, CVE-2014-3647

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/3.16.0-24.32

 

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