10 - USN-2541-1

A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:

- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Summary:

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Software Description: - linux: Linux kernel

Details:

The Linux kernel's splice system call did not correctly validate its parameters. A local, unprivileged user could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2014-7822)

A flaw was discovered in how Thread Local Storage (TLS) is handled by the task switching function in the Linux kernel for x86_64 based machines. A local user could exploit this flaw to bypass the Address Space Layout Radomization (ASLR) protection mechanism. (CVE-2014-9419)

Dmitry Chernenkov discovered a buffer overflow in eCryptfs' encrypted file name decoding. A local unprivileged user could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) or potentially gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2014-9683)

Sun Baoliang discovered a use after free flaw in the Linux kernel's SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) subsystem during INIT collisions. A remote attacker could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) or potentially escalate their privileges on the system. (CVE-2015-1421)

Update instructions:

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

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
linux-image-3.2.0-79-generic 3.2.0-79.115
linux-image-3.2.0-79-generic-pae 3.2.0-79.115
linux-image-3.2.0-79-highbank 3.2.0-79.115
linux-image-3.2.0-79-omap 3.2.0-79.115
linux-image-3.2.0-79-powerpc-smp 3.2.0-79.115
linux-image-3.2.0-79-powerpc64-smp 3.2.0-79.115
linux-image-3.2.0-79-virtual 3.2.0-79.115

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.

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.

References:
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-2541-1
CVE-2014-7822, CVE-2014-9419, CVE-2014-9683, CVE-2015-1421

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/3.2.0-79.115