Patch for new 64bit kernel vulnerability?

Question

I read about the 64 bit kernel vulnerability in the linux kernel today (9/20) Link to article

I have an ubuntu server 10.04 and 8.04 in my organization. My question is could I just use the apt-get utility or the aptitude safe-upgrade to patch these kernels - but is the 64 bit kernel patch included in those updates I would download?

Answer 1

You should have gotten them through the updates... according to this they went out the 17th:

http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-988-1

Answer 2

When wondering about these things, you can always check the changelog files for your installed kernels. For example, first make sure you're up to date:

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then you can check what happened in the latest kernel update:

$ cd $(ls -dtr /usr/share/doc/linux-image-* | tail -n1)

$ zcat changelog.Debian.gz | head -n10

linux (2.6.32-24.43) lucid-security; urgency=low

  [ Upstream Kernel Changes ]

  * x86-64, compat: Test %rax for the syscall number, not %eax
    - CVE-2010-3301
      * x86-64, compat: Retruncate rax after ia32 syscall entry tracing
    - CVE-2010-3301
  * compat: Make compat_alloc_user_space() incorporate the access_ok()
    - CVE-2010-3081

Then you can compare what kernel you have running against the latest changelog, and reboot if you haven't already:

$ cat /proc/version_signature

 Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.43-server 2.6.32.15+drm33.5