Users are urged to update their system immediately

Apr 25, 2017 21:08 GMT  ·  By

Canonical announced the availability of an updated kernel patch for all supported Ubuntu Linux releases, addressing a security vulnerability discovered recently in the upstream Linux kernel.

The security issue affects the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) operating systems, as well as all of their derivatives, including Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Budgie, and Ubuntu Server.

The issue appears to have been discovered by Alexander Popov in Linux kernel's SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) implementation as a race condition that could allow a local attacker to crash the system by causing a denial of service (DoS).

"Alexander Popov discovered that a race condition existed in the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system crash)," reads the respective Ubuntu security advisory.

Trusty, Xenial, and Yakkety HWE kernels also available

As expected, Canonical also released updated HWE (Hardware Enablement) kernels for the Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS, Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS, and Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS releases, urging all users of these Ubuntu Linux variants to update their installations as soon as possible.

The new kernel versions are linux-image 3.13.0.117.127 for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, linux-image 4.8.0.49.61 for Ubuntu 16.10, linux-image-lts-trusty 3.13.0.117.108 for Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS, linux-image-lts-xenial 4.4.0.75.62 for Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS, and linux-image-hwe-16.04 4.8.0.49.21 for Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS.

To update your Ubuntu OS, you'll need to run the "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" command in the Terminal app, or fire up the Software Updater utility and install all available updates. Make sure you reboot your computer after installing the new kernel version. More details are provided by Canonical at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.