Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS Xenial HWE kernel also affected

Aug 16, 2017 20:57 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this month, on August 3, Canonical published multiple security advisories to inform Ubuntu users about the availability of new kernel releases for all supported Ubuntu Linux operating systems.

The respective security notice contained information about four kernel vulnerabilities that affected the Linux 4.4 LTS kernel packages of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) on all supported architectures, including 64-bit and 32-bit, Raspberry Pi 2, Snapdragon processors, as well as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Container Engine (GKE) systems.

However, the security patch introduced a regression that apparently prevented the conntrack component, Netfilter's connection tracking userspace tool, to work correctly under certain conditions. Therefore, Canonical is today releasing updated Linux 4.4 kernel packages for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with a fix for said regression, urging users to update their systems immediately.

"USN-3378-1 fixed vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel. Unfortunately, a regression was introduced that prevented conntrack from working correctly in some situations. This update fixes the problem. We apologize for the inconvenience," said Canonical in the USN-3392-1 and USN-3392-2 security advisories published earlier today, August 16, 2017.

Updated Xenial HWE kernel available now for Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS users

Canonical also released today updated HWE (Hardware Enablement) kernel packages for users of the Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating systems, urging them to update their installations as well. Users must update their computers using the instructions provided by Canonical at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades. Don't forget to reboot your computer after installing the new kernel versions.

The new kernel versions are linux-image-generic 4.4.0.92.97 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, linux-image-raspi2 4.4.0.1070.70 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for Raspberry Pi 2, linux-image-snapdragon 4.4.0.1072.64 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for Snapdragon processors, linux-image-4.4.0-1027-gke 4.4.0-1027.27 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for GKE, and linux-image-aws 4.4.0.1031.33 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS for AWS. Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS users must update to linux-image-generic-lts-xenial 4.4.0.92.76.