Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.
Mohamed Ghannam discovered that a use-after-free vulnerability existed in the Netlink subsystem (XFRM) in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-16939)
8 December 2017
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.
Mohamed Ghannam discovered that a use-after-free vulnerability existed in the Netlink subsystem (XFRM) in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-16939)
It was discovered that the Linux kernel did not properly handle copy-on- write of transparent huge pages. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (application crashes) or possibly gain administrative privileges. (CVE-2017-1000405)
Fan Wu, Haoran Qiu, and Shixiong Zhao discovered that the associative array implementation in the Linux kernel sometimes did not properly handle adding a new entry. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2017-12193)
Eric Biggers discovered that the key management subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly restrict adding a key that already exists but is uninstantiated. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-15299)
It was discovered that a null pointer dereference error existed in the PowerPC KVM implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2017-15306)
Eric Biggers discovered a race condition in the key management subsystem of the Linux kernel around keys in a negative state. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2017-15951)
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.
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