6.9 - USN-3484-2

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

- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Summary:

The system could be made to crash or run programs as an administrator.

Software Description: - linux-hwe: Linux hardware enablement (HWE) kernel

Details:

USN-3484-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel for Ubuntu 17.04. This update provides the corresponding updates for the Linux Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernel from Ubuntu 17.04 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

It was discovered that the KVM subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly keep track of nested levels in guest page tables. A local attacker in a guest VM could use this to cause a denial of service (host OS crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code in the host OS.

Update instructions:

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

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS:
linux-image-4.10.0-40-generic 4.10.0-40.44~16.04.1
linux-image-4.10.0-40-generic-lpae 4.10.0-40.44~16.04.1
linux-image-4.10.0-40-lowlatency 4.10.0-40.44~16.04.1
linux-image-generic-hwe-16.04 4.10.0.40.42
linux-image-generic-lpae-hwe-16.04 4.10.0.40.42
linux-image-lowlatency-hwe-16.04 4.10.0.40.42

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. 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.

References:
https://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3484-2
https://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-3484-1
CVE-2017-12188

Package Information:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-hwe/4.10.0-40.44~16.04.1