1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-3594-1

USN-3594-1: Linux kernel vulnerability

Publication date

9 March 2018

Overview

The system could be made to expose sensitive information.

Releases

Packages

Details

USN-3542-1 mitigated CVE-2017-5715 (Spectre Variant 2) for the
amd64 architecture in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. This update provides the
compiler-based retpoline kernel mitigation for the amd64 and i386
architectures. Original advisory details:

Jann Horn discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution
and branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via sidechannel
attacks. This flaw is known as Spectre. A local attacker could use this to
expose sensitive information, including kernel memory. (CVE-2017-5715)

USN-3542-1 mitigated CVE-2017-5715 (Spectre Variant 2) for the
amd64 architecture in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. This update provides the
compiler-based retpoline kernel mitigation for the amd64 and i386
architectures. Original advisory details:

Jann Horn discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution
and branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via sidechannel
attacks. This flaw is known as Spectre. A local attacker could use this to
expose sensitive information, including kernel memory. (CVE-2017-5715)

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-3.13.0-143-generic –  3.13.0-143.192
linux-image-3.13.0-143-generic-lpae –  3.13.0-143.192
linux-image-3.13.0-143-lowlatency –  3.13.0-143.192

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References

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