1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-6485-1

USN-6485-1: Intel Microcode vulnerability

Publication date

17 November 2023

Overview

The system could be made to crash or expose sensitive information under certain conditions.

Releases

Packages

Details

Benoit Morgan, Paul Grosen, Thais Moreira Hamasaki, Ke Sun, Alyssa Milburn,
Hisham Shafi, Nir Shlomovich, Tavis Ormandy, Daniel Moghimi, Josh Eads, Salman
Qazi, Alexandra Sandulescu, Andy Nguyen, Eduardo Vela, Doug Kwan, and Kostik
Shtoyk discovered that some Intel(R) Processors did not properly handle certain
sequences of processor instructions. A local attacker could possibly use this to
cause a core hang (resulting in a denial of service), gain access to sensitive
information or possibly escalate their privileges.

Benoit Morgan, Paul Grosen, Thais Moreira Hamasaki, Ke Sun, Alyssa Milburn,
Hisham Shafi, Nir Shlomovich, Tavis Ormandy, Daniel Moghimi, Josh Eads, Salman
Qazi, Alexandra Sandulescu, Andy Nguyen, Eduardo Vela, Doug Kwan, and Kostik
Shtoyk discovered that some Intel(R) Processors did not properly handle certain
sequences of processor instructions. A local attacker could possibly use this to
cause a core hang (resulting in a denial of service), gain access to sensitive
information or possibly escalate their privileges.

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.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
23.10 mantic intel-microcode –  3.20231114.0ubuntu0.23.10.1
23.04 lunar intel-microcode –  3.20231114.0ubuntu0.23.04.1
22.04 jammy intel-microcode –  3.20231114.0ubuntu0.22.04.1
20.04 focal intel-microcode –  3.20231114.0ubuntu0.20.04.1
18.04 bionic intel-microcode –  3.20231114.0ubuntu0.18.04.1+esm1  
16.04 xenial intel-microcode –  3.20231114.0ubuntu0.16.04.1+esm1  

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References

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