linux vulnerabilities

Related Vulnerabilities: CVE-2011-4127   CVE-2011-4622   CVE-2012-0038   CVE-2012-2100  

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Paolo Bonzini discovered a flaw in Linux’s handling of the SG_IO ioctl command. A local user, or user in a VM could exploit this flaw to bypass restrictions and gain read/write access to all data on the affected block device. (CVE-2011-4127)

6 March 2012

linux vulnerabilities

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

  • Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Summary

Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.

Software Description

  • linux - Linux kernel

Details

Paolo Bonzini discovered a flaw in Linux’s handling of the SG_IO ioctl command. A local user, or user in a VM could exploit this flaw to bypass restrictions and gain read/write access to all data on the affected block device. (CVE-2011-4127)

A flaw was found in KVM’s Programmable Interval Timer (PIT). When a virtual interrupt control is not available a local user could use this to cause a denial of service by starting a timer. (CVE-2011-4622)

A flaw was discovered in the XFS filesystem. If a local user mounts a specially crafted XFS image it could potential execute arbitrary code on the system. (CVE-2012-0038)

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s ext4 file system when mounting a corrupt filesystem. A user-assisted remote attacker could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2012-2100)

Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
linux-image-2.6.32-39-386 - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-generic - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-generic-pae - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-ia64 - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-lpia - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-powerpc - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-powerpc-smp - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-powerpc64-smp - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-preempt - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-server - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-sparc64 - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-sparc64-smp - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-versatile - 2.6.32-39.86
linux-image-2.6.32-39-virtual - 2.6.32-39.86

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. 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