1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-3084-2

USN-3084-2: Linux kernel (Xenial HWE) vulnerabilities

Publication date

19 September 2016

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Releases

Packages

Details

USN-3084-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu
16.04 LTS. This update provides the corresponding updates for the
Linux Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

Pengfei Wang discovered a race condition in the audit subsystem in the
Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to corrupt audit logs or
disrupt system-call auditing. (CVE-2016-6136)

It was discovered that the powerpc and powerpc64 hypervisor-mode KVM
implementation in the Linux kernel for did not properly maintain state
about transactional memory. An unprivileged attacker in a guest could cause
a denial of service (CPU lockup) in the host OS. (CVE-2016-5412)

Pengfei Wang discovered a race condition in the Chrome OS embedded
controller device driver in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use
this to cause a denial of service...

USN-3084-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu
16.04 LTS. This update provides the corresponding updates for the
Linux Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

Pengfei Wang discovered a race condition in the audit subsystem in the
Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to corrupt audit logs or
disrupt system-call auditing. (CVE-2016-6136)

It was discovered that the powerpc and powerpc64 hypervisor-mode KVM
implementation in the Linux kernel for did not properly maintain state
about transactional memory. An unprivileged attacker in a guest could cause
a denial of service (CPU lockup) in the host OS. (CVE-2016-5412)

Pengfei Wang discovered a race condition in the Chrome OS embedded
controller device driver in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use
this to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2016-6156)

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. 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.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
14.04 trusty linux-image-4.4.0-38-generic –  4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1
linux-image-4.4.0-38-generic-lpae –  4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1
linux-image-4.4.0-38-lowlatency –  4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1
linux-image-4.4.0-38-powerpc-e500mc –  4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1
linux-image-4.4.0-38-powerpc-smp –  4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1
linux-image-4.4.0-38-powerpc64-emb –  4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1
linux-image-4.4.0-38-powerpc64-smp –  4.4.0-38.57~14.04.1

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References

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