CAN-2005-0001:
Paul Starzetz discovered a race condition in the Linux page fault handler code. This allowed an unprivileged user to gain root privileges on multiprocessor machines under some circumstances. This also affects the Hyper-Threading mode on Pentium 4 processors.
14 January 2005
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
CAN-2005-0001:
Paul Starzetz discovered a race condition in the Linux page fault handler code. This allowed an unprivileged user to gain root privileges on multiprocessor machines under some circumstances. This also affects the Hyper-Threading mode on Pentium 4 processors.
http://lists.netsys.com/pipermail/full-disclosure/2005-January/030660.html:
Brad Spengler discovered that some device drivers used copy_from_user() (a function to copy data from userspace tools into kernel memory) with insufficient input validation. This potentially allowed users and/or malicious hardware to overwrite kernel memory which could result in a crash (Denial of Service) or even root privilege escalation.
Additionally, this update corrects the SMB file system driver. USN-30-1 fixed some vulnerabilities in this driver (see CAN-2004-0883, CAN-2004-0949). However, it was found that these new validation checks were too strict, which cause some valid operations to fail.
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.
Vulmon