USN-4096-1: Linux kernel (AWS) vulnerability
linux-aws, linux-aws-hwe vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 19.04
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Summary
The system could be made to expose sensitive information.
Software Description
- linux-aws – Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems
- linux-aws-hwe – Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS-HWE) systems
Details
Andrei Vlad Lutas and Dan Lutas discovered that some x86 processors
incorrectly handle SWAPGS instructions during speculative execution. A
local attacker could use this to expose sensitive information (kernel
memory).
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:
- Ubuntu 19.04
- linux-image-5.0.0-1012-aws – 5.0.0-1012.13
- linux-image-aws – 5.0.0.1012.12
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- linux-image-4.15.0-1045-aws – 4.15.0-1045.47
- linux-image-aws – 4.15.0.1045.44
- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
- linux-image-4.15.0-1045-aws – 4.15.0-1045.47~16.04.1
- linux-image-aws-hwe – 4.15.0.1045.45
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.
References
Source: USN-4096-1: Linux kernel (AWS) vulnerability
