14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical released today the Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS point release to its long-term supported Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system series to address a recently discovered APT vulnerability.
As reported earlier this week, Canonical started working on emergency point releases for its Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system series to offer users who want to install these releases a more secure live/installation media that patches a security vulnerability affecting the APT package manager.
The APT security vulnerability affects all Debian and Ubuntu-based operating systems and could allow a remote attacker to install malicious packages in machines that didn't patched the flaw to execute code as root and possibly crash the host. The vulnerability made APT to recognize the malicious packages as valid ones.
"Unlike previous point releases, 16.04.6 is a security-targeted release for the purpose of providing updated installation media which protects new installations from the recently discovered APT vulnerability (USN-3863-1). Many other security updates for additional high-impact bugs are also included," said Łukasz Zemczak.
Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS is now available to download for all flavors
The Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS point release is now available for download as Desktop and Server images for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. The Kubuntu 16.04.6 LTS, Xubuntu 16.04.6 LTS, Lubuntu 16.04.6 LTS, Ubuntu MATE 16.04.6 LTS, Ubuntu Kylin 16.04.6 LTS, and Mythbuntu 16.04.6 LTS official flavors are also available to download.
However, keep in mind that these new ISO images are here only for new deployments of Canonical's Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system to ensure a more secure installation. Existing users don't need to download these images to keep their installations up to date as they only have to run the "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" command in a terminal emulator.