Information Security News: Ubuntu gets major security fix

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2224707/ubuntu-gets-major-security-fix

By Shaun Nichols in San Francisco
vnunet.com
26 Aug 2008

Ubuntu users are being advised to update their systems after the release 
of a patch for the operating system's Linux kernel.

The open-source group sent out an advisory to users warning that, if 
left unpatched, the flaws could allow an attacker execute malicious code 
or cause a denial of service error leading to a system crash.

The vulnerability was traced back to what Ubuntu describes as "multiple 
NULL-pointer function dereferences in the Linux kernel terminal handling 
code." The attack is locally exploitable, meaning the attacker would 
need to have direct access to the targeted system.

Additionally, the update addresses several less serious flaws which 
could allow for local attackers to obtain user data and run denial of 
service attacks. The patch also fixes an error caused by a previous 
update.

The vulnerability affects the 6.06, 7.04, 7.10 and 8.04 releases of 
Ubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.


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