USN-5092-3: Linux kernel (Azure) regression

Publication date

18 October 2021

Overview

USN-5092-2 introduced a regression in the Linux kernel for Microsoft Azure cloud systems.


Packages

Details

USN-5092-2 fixed vulnerabilities in Linux 5.11-based kernels.
Unfortunately, for Linux kernels intended for use within Microsoft
Azure environments, that update introduced a regression that could
cause the kernel to fail to boot in large Azure instance types.
This update fixes the problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Original advisory details:

Valentina Palmiotti discovered that the io_uring subsystem in the Linux
kernel could be coerced to free adjacent memory. A local attacker could use
this to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-41073)

Ofek Kirzner, Adam Morrison, Benedict Schlueter, and Piotr Krysiuk
discovered that the BPF verifier in the Linux kernel missed possible
mispredicted branches due to type confusion, allowing a side-channel
attack. An attacker could use this to expose sensitive information.
(

USN-5092-2 fixed vulnerabilities in Linux 5.11-based kernels.
Unfortunately, for Linux kernels intended for use within Microsoft
Azure environments, that update introduced a regression that could
cause the kernel to fail to boot in large Azure instance types.
This update fixes the problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Original advisory details:

Valentina Palmiotti discovered that the io_uring subsystem in the Linux
kernel could be coerced to free adjacent memory. A local attacker could use
this to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-41073)

Ofek Kirzner, Adam Morrison, Benedict Schlueter, and Piotr Krysiuk
discovered that the BPF verifier in the Linux kernel missed possible
mispredicted branches due to type confusion, allowing a side-channel
attack. An attacker could use this to expose sensitive information.
(CVE-2021-33624)

Benedict Schlueter discovered that the BPF subsystem in the Linux kernel
did not properly protect against Speculative Store Bypass (SSB) side-
channel attacks in some situations. A local attacker could possibly use
this to expose sensitive information. (CVE-2021-34556)

Piotr Krysiuk discovered that the BPF subsystem in the Linux kernel did not
properly protect against Speculative Store Bypass (SSB) side-channel
attacks in some situations. A local attacker could possibly use this to
expose sensitive information. (CVE-2021-35477)

It was discovered that the tracing subsystem in the Linux kernel did not
properly keep track of per-cpu ring buffer state. A privileged attacker
could use this to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2021-3679)

It was discovered that the Option USB High Speed Mobile device driver in
the Linux kernel did not properly handle error conditions. A physically
proximate attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2021-37159)

Alexey Kardashevskiy discovered that the KVM implementation for PowerPC
systems in the Linux kernel did not properly validate RTAS arguments in
some situations. An attacker in a guest vm could use this to cause a denial
of service (host OS crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code.
(CVE-2021-37576)

It was discovered that the Virtio console implementation in the Linux
kernel did not properly validate input lengths in some situations. A local
attacker could possibly use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash). (CVE-2021-38160)

Michael Wakabayashi discovered that the NFSv4 client implementation in the
Linux kernel did not properly order connection setup operations. An
attacker controlling a remote NFS server could use this to cause a denial
of service on the client. (CVE-2021-38199)

It was discovered that the Sun RPC implementation in the Linux kernel
contained an out-of-bounds access error. A remote attacker could possibly
use this to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2021-38201)

It was discovered that the MAX-3421 host USB device driver in the Linux
kernel did not properly handle device removal events. A physically
proximate attacker could use this to cause a denial of service (system
crash). (CVE-2021-38204)

It was discovered that the Xilinx 10/100 Ethernet Lite device driver in the
Linux kernel could report pointer addresses in some situations. An attacker
could use this information to ease the exploitation of another
vulnerability. (CVE-2021-38205)


Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

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.

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


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