USN-3159-1: Linux kernel vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-3159-1

20th December, 2016

linux vulnerability

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

• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Summary

The system could be made to expose sensitive information.

Software description

• linux - Linux kernel

Details

It was discovered that a race condition in the procfs environ_read function
in the Linux kernel, leading to an integer underflow. A local attacker
could use this to expose sensitive information (kernel memory).

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

linux-image-3.2.0-119-generic-pae 3.2.0-119.162

linux-image-3.2.0-119-omap 3.2.0-119.162

linux-image-powerpc-smp 3.2.0.119.134

linux-image-3.2.0-119-powerpc-smp 3.2.0-119.162

linux-image-generic-pae 3.2.0.119.134

linux-image-highbank 3.2.0.119.134

linux-image-3.2.0-119-powerpc64-smp 3.2.0-119.162

linux-image-virtual 3.2.0.119.134

linux-image-powerpc64-smp 3.2.0.119.134

linux-image-generic 3.2.0.119.134

linux-image-3.2.0-119-generic 3.2.0-119.162

linux-image-3.2.0-119-virtual 3.2.0-119.162

linux-image-omap 3.2.0.119.134

linux-image-3.2.0-119-highbank 3.2.0-119.162

To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.

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

CVE-2016-7916