USN-2977-1: Linux kernel (Vivid HWE) vulnerability

Ubuntu Security Notice USN-2977-1

16th May, 2016

linux-lts-vivid vulnerability

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

• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Summary

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

Software description

• linux-lts-vivid - Linux hardware enablement kernel from Vivid for Trusty

Details

Philip Pettersson discovered that the Linux kernel's ASN.1 DER decoder did
not properly process certificate files with tags of indefinite length. A
local unprivileged attacker could use this to cause a denial of service
(system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code with administrative
privileges.

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:

linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc64-smp 3.19.0-59.66~14.04.1

linux-image-3.19.0-59-lowlatency 3.19.0-59.66~14.04.1

linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc64-emb 3.19.0-59.66~14.04.1

linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc-smp 3.19.0-59.66~14.04.1

linux-image-3.19.0-59-powerpc-e500mc 3.19.0-59.66~14.04.1

linux-image-3.19.0-59-generic-lpae 3.19.0-59.66~14.04.1

linux-image-3.19.0-59-generic 3.19.0-59.66~14.04.1

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-vivid, linux-virtual,
linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform
this as well.

References

CVE-2016-0758