Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.
It was discovered that a use-after-free vulnerability existed in the block device layer of the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2016-7910)
22 February 2017
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
Several security issues were fixed in the kernel.
It was discovered that a use-after-free vulnerability existed in the block device layer of the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2016-7910)
Dmitry Vyukov discovered a use-after-free vulnerability in the sys_ioprio_get() function in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2016-7911)
Andrey Konovalov discovered a use-after-free vulnerability in the DCCP implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2017-6074)
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
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.