The system could be made to expose sensitive information.
USN-3690-1 provided updated microcode for AMD processors to address CVE-2017-5715 (aka Spectre). Unfortunately, the update caused some systems to fail to boot. This update reverts the update for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
5 July 2018
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
The system could be made to expose sensitive information.
USN-3690-1 provided updated microcode for AMD processors to address CVE-2017-5715 (aka Spectre). Unfortunately, the update caused some systems to fail to boot. This update reverts the update for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Original advisory details:
Jann Horn discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and branch prediction may allow unauthorized memory reads via sidechannel attacks. This flaw is known as Spectre. A local attacker could use this to expose sensitive information, including kernel memory.
This update provides the microcode updates for AMD 17H family processors required for the corresponding Linux kernel updates.
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.