1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-2688-1

USN-2688-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Publication date

28 July 2015

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Releases

Packages

Details

Andy Lutomirski discovered a flaw in the Linux kernel’s handling of nested
NMIs (non-maskable interrupts). An unprivileged local user could exploit
this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) or potentially
escalate their privileges. (CVE-2015-3290)

Colin King discovered a flaw in the add_key function of the Linux kernel’s
keyring subsystem. A local user could exploit this flaw to cause a denial
of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2015-1333)

Andy Lutomirski discovered a flaw that allows user to cause the Linux
kernel to ignore some NMIs (non-maskable interrupts). A local unprivileged
user could exploit this flaw to potentially cause the system to miss
important NMIs resulting in unspecified effects. (CVE-2015-3291)

Andy Lutomirski and Petr Matousek discovered that an NMI (non-maskable
interrupt) that...

Andy Lutomirski discovered a flaw in the Linux kernel’s handling of nested
NMIs (non-maskable interrupts). An unprivileged local user could exploit
this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) or potentially
escalate their privileges. (CVE-2015-3290)

Colin King discovered a flaw in the add_key function of the Linux kernel’s
keyring subsystem. A local user could exploit this flaw to cause a denial
of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2015-1333)

Andy Lutomirski discovered a flaw that allows user to cause the Linux
kernel to ignore some NMIs (non-maskable interrupts). A local unprivileged
user could exploit this flaw to potentially cause the system to miss
important NMIs resulting in unspecified effects. (CVE-2015-3291)

Andy Lutomirski and Petr Matousek discovered that an NMI (non-maskable
interrupt) that interrupts userspace and encounters an IRET fault is
incorrectly handled by the Linux kernel. An unprivileged local user could
exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (kernel OOPs), corruption,
or potentially escalate privileges on the system. (CVE-2015-5157)

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. 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
14.04 trusty linux-image-3.13.0-59-generic –  3.13.0-59.98
linux-image-3.13.0-59-generic-lpae –  3.13.0-59.98
linux-image-3.13.0-59-lowlatency –  3.13.0-59.98
linux-image-3.13.0-59-powerpc-e500 –  3.13.0-59.98
linux-image-3.13.0-59-powerpc-e500mc –  3.13.0-59.98
linux-image-3.13.0-59-powerpc-smp –  3.13.0-59.98
linux-image-3.13.0-59-powerpc64-emb –  3.13.0-59.98
linux-image-3.13.0-59-powerpc64-smp –  3.13.0-59.98

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References

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