USN-4162-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

22 October 2019

Several security issues were fixed in the Linux kernel.

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Releases

Packages

  • linux - Linux kernel
  • linux-aws - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems
  • linux-aws-hwe - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS-HWE) systems
  • linux-azure - Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure Cloud systems
  • linux-gcp - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems
  • linux-gke-4.15 - Linux kernel for Google Container Engine (GKE) systems
  • linux-hwe - Linux hardware enablement (HWE) kernel
  • linux-kvm - Linux kernel for cloud environments
  • linux-oem - Linux kernel for OEM processors
  • linux-oracle - Linux kernel for Oracle Cloud systems
  • linux-raspi2 - Linux kernel for Raspberry Pi 2
  • linux-snapdragon - Linux kernel for Snapdragon processors

Details

It was discovered that the RSI 91x Wi-Fi driver in the Linux kernel did not
did not handle detach operations correctly, leading to a use-after-free
vulnerability. A physically proximate attacker could use this to cause a
denial of service (system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code.
(CVE-2018-21008)

Wen Huang discovered that the Marvell Wi-Fi device driver in the Linux
kernel did not properly perform bounds checking, leading to a heap
overflow. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service
(system crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2019-14814,
CVE-2019-14815, CVE-2019-14816)

Matt Delco discovered that the KVM hypervisor implementation in the Linux
kernel did not properly perform bounds checking when handling coalesced
MMIO write operations. A local attacker with write access to /dev/kvm could
use this to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2019-14821)

Hui Peng and Mathias Payer discovered that the USB audio driver for the
Linux kernel did not properly validate device meta data. A physically
proximate attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash). (CVE-2019-15117)

Hui Peng and Mathias Payer discovered that the USB audio driver for the
Linux kernel improperly performed recursion while handling device meta
data. A physically proximate attacker could use this to cause a denial of
service (system crash). (CVE-2019-15118)

It was discovered that the Technisat DVB-S/S2 USB device driver in the
Linux kernel contained a buffer overread. A physically proximate attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly
expose sensitive information. (CVE-2019-15505)

Brad Spengler discovered that a Spectre mitigation was improperly
implemented in the ptrace susbsystem of the Linux kernel. A local attacker
could possibly use this to expose sensitive information. (CVE-2019-15902)

It was discovered that the SMB networking file system implementation in the
Linux kernel contained a buffer overread. An attacker could use this to
expose sensitive information (kernel memory). (CVE-2019-15918)

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Update instructions

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

Ubuntu 18.04
Ubuntu 16.04

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.

References

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