USN-679-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Publication date

27 November 2008

Overview

Linux kernel vulnerabilities


Details

It was discovered that the Xen hypervisor block driver did not correctly
validate requests. A user with root privileges in a guest OS could make a
malicious IO request with a large number of blocks that would crash the
host OS, leading to a denial of service. This only affected Ubuntu 7.10.
(CVE-2007-5498)

It was discovered the the i915 video driver did not correctly validate
memory addresses. A local attacker could exploit this to remap memory that
could cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue did
not affect Ubuntu 6.06 and was previous fixed for Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 in
USN-659-1. Ubuntu 8.10 has now been corrected as well. (CVE-2008-3831)

David Watson discovered that the kernel did not correctly strip permissions
when creating files in setgid directories. A local user could exploit this
to gain additional group privileges....

It was discovered that the Xen hypervisor block driver did not correctly
validate requests. A user with root privileges in a guest OS could make a
malicious IO request with a large number of blocks that would crash the
host OS, leading to a denial of service. This only affected Ubuntu 7.10.
(CVE-2007-5498)

It was discovered the the i915 video driver did not correctly validate
memory addresses. A local attacker could exploit this to remap memory that
could cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue did
not affect Ubuntu 6.06 and was previous fixed for Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 in
USN-659-1. Ubuntu 8.10 has now been corrected as well. (CVE-2008-3831)

David Watson discovered that the kernel did not correctly strip permissions
when creating files in setgid directories. A local user could exploit this
to gain additional group privileges. This issue only affected Ubuntu 6.06.
(CVE-2008-4210)

Olaf Kirch and Miklos Szeredi discovered that the Linux kernel did
not correctly reject the “append” flag when handling file splice
requests. A local attacker could bypass append mode and make changes to
arbitrary locations in a file. This issue only affected Ubuntu 7.10 and
8.04. (CVE-2008-4554)

It was discovered that the SCTP stack did not correctly handle INIT-ACK. A
remote user could exploit this by sending specially crafted SCTP traffic
which would trigger a crash in the system, leading to a denial of service.
This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10. (CVE-2008-4576)

It was discovered that the SCTP stack did not correctly handle bad packet
lengths. A remote user could exploit this by sending specially crafted SCTP
traffic which would trigger a crash in the system, leading to a denial of
service. This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10. (CVE-2008-4618)

Eric Sesterhenn discovered multiple flaws in the HFS+ filesystem. If a
local user or automated system were tricked into mounting a malicious HFS+
filesystem, the system could crash, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2008-4933, CVE-2008-4934, CVE-2008-5025)

It was discovered that the Unix Socket handler did not correctly process
the SCM_RIGHTS message. A local attacker could make a malicious socket
request that would crash the system, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2008-5029)

It was discovered that the driver for simple i2c audio interfaces did not
correctly validate certain function pointers. A local user could exploit
this to gain root privileges or crash the system, leading to a denial of
service. (CVE-2008-5033)


Update instructions

After a standard system upgrade you need to reboot your computer to effect 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
8.10 intrepid linux-image-2.6.27-9-virtual –  2.6.27-9.19
linux-image-2.6.27-9-generic –  2.6.27-9.19
linux-image-2.6.27-9-server –  2.6.27-9.19
8.04 hardy linux-image-2.6.24-22-powerpc –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-sparc64 –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-virtual –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-server –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-lpia –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-hppa32 –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-lpiacompat –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-rt –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-generic –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-hppa64 –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-xen –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-mckinley –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-powerpc64-smp –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-itanium –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-openvz –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-386 –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-sparc64-smp –  2.6.24-22.45
linux-image-2.6.24-22-powerpc-smp –  2.6.24-22.45
7.10 gutsy linux-image-2.6.22-16-mckinley –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-powerpc64-smp –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-virtual –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-cell –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-hppa64 –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-sparc64-smp –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-generic –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-lpia –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-powerpc-smp –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-386 –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-hppa32 –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-rt –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-xen –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-powerpc –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-itanium –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-lpiacompat –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-ume –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-sparc64 –  2.6.22-16.60
linux-image-2.6.22-16-server –  2.6.22-16.60
6.06 dapper linux-image-2.6.15-53-powerpc64-smp –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-powerpc –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-amd64-xeon –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-386 –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-amd64-generic –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-686 –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-hppa64 –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-sparc64 –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-amd64-server –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-amd64-k8 –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-hppa64-smp –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-sparc64-smp –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-itanium-smp –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-hppa32 –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-hppa32-smp –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-mckinley –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-powerpc-smp –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-server-bigiron –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-mckinley-smp –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-server –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-itanium –  2.6.15-53.74
linux-image-2.6.15-53-k7 –  2.6.15-53.74

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