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Ubuntu 20.04 LTS : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-4751-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 147978

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Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 20.04 LTS host has a package installed that is affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-4751-1 advisory.

 - A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. A use-after-free was found in the way the console subsystem was using ioctls KDGKBSENT and KDSKBSENT. A local user could use this flaw to get read memory access out of bounds. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality. (CVE-2020-25656)

 - A flaw was found in Linux Kernel because access to the global variable fg_console is not properly synchronized leading to a use after free in con_font_op. (CVE-2020-25668)

 - A vulnerability was found in the Linux Kernel where the function sunkbd_reinit having been scheduled by sunkbd_interrupt before sunkbd being freed. Though the dangling pointer is set to NULL in sunkbd_disconnect, there is still an alias in sunkbd_reinit causing Use After Free. (CVE-2020-25669)

 - A flaw memory leak in the Linux kernel performance monitoring subsystem was found in the way if using PERF_EVENT_IOC_SET_FILTER. A local user could use this flaw to starve the resources causing denial of service. (CVE-2020-25704)

 - An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel through 5.9.1, as used with Xen through 4.14.x. Guest OS users can cause a denial of service (host OS hang) via a high rate of events to dom0, aka CID-e99502f76271.
 (CVE-2020-27673)

 - An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel through 5.9.1, as used with Xen through 4.14.x.
 drivers/xen/events/events_base.c allows event-channel removal during the event-handling loop (a race condition). This can cause a use-after-free or NULL pointer dereference, as demonstrated by a dom0 crash via events for an in-reconfiguration paravirtualized device, aka CID-073d0552ead5. (CVE-2020-27675)

 - A flaw was found in the way RTAS handled memory accesses in userspace to kernel communication. On a locked down (usually due to Secure Boot) guest system running on top of PowerVM or KVM hypervisors (pseries platform) a root like local user could use this flaw to further increase their privileges to that of a running kernel. (CVE-2020-27777)

 - A flaw was found in the JFS filesystem code in the Linux Kernel which allows a local attacker with the ability to set extended attributes to panic the system, causing memory corruption or escalating privileges. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability. (CVE-2020-27815)

 - A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel where in the spk_ttyio_receive_buf2() function, it would dereference spk_ttyio_synth without checking whether it is NULL or not, and may lead to a NULL-ptr deref crash. (CVE-2020-27830)

 - A use after free in the Linux kernel infiniband hfi1 driver in versions prior to 5.10-rc6 was found in the way user calls Ioctl after open dev file and fork. A local user could use this flaw to crash the system.
 (CVE-2020-27835)

 - An information disclosure vulnerability exists in the /proc/pid/syscall functionality of Linux Kernel 5.1 Stable and 5.4.66. More specifically, this issue has been introduced in v5.1-rc4 (commit 631b7abacd02b88f4b0795c08b54ad4fc3e7c7c0) and is still present in v5.10-rc4, so it's likely that all versions in between are affected. An attacker can read /proc/pid/syscall to trigger this vulnerability, which leads to the kernel leaking memory contents. (CVE-2020-28588)

 - An issue was discovered in drivers/accessibility/speakup/spk_ttyio.c in the Linux kernel through 5.9.9.
 Local attackers on systems with the speakup driver could cause a local denial of service attack, aka CID-d41227544427. This occurs because of an invalid free when the line discipline is used more than once.
 (CVE-2020-28941)

 - A slab-out-of-bounds read in fbcon in the Linux kernel before 5.9.7 could be used by local attackers to read privileged information or potentially crash the kernel, aka CID-3c4e0dff2095. This occurs because KD_FONT_OP_COPY in drivers/tty/vt/vt.c can be used for manipulations such as font height. (CVE-2020-28974)

 - An issue was discovered in Xen through 4.14.x. Some OSes (such as Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD) are processing watch events using a single thread. If the events are received faster than the thread is able to handle, they will get queued. As the queue is unbounded, a guest may be able to trigger an OOM in the backend. All systems with a FreeBSD, Linux, or NetBSD (any version) dom0 are vulnerable. (CVE-2020-29568)

 - An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel through 5.10.1, as used with Xen through 4.14.x. The Linux kernel PV block backend expects the kernel thread handler to reset ring->xenblkd to NULL when stopped.
 However, the handler may not have time to run if the frontend quickly toggles between the states connect and disconnect. As a consequence, the block backend may re-use a pointer after it was freed. A misbehaving guest can trigger a dom0 crash by continuously connecting / disconnecting a block frontend. Privilege escalation and information leaks cannot be ruled out. This only affects systems with a Linux blkback.
 (CVE-2020-29569)

 - A locking inconsistency issue was discovered in the tty subsystem of the Linux kernel through 5.9.13.
 drivers/tty/tty_io.c and drivers/tty/tty_jobctrl.c may allow a read-after-free attack against TIOCGSID, aka CID-c8bcd9c5be24. (CVE-2020-29660)

 - A locking issue was discovered in the tty subsystem of the Linux kernel through 5.9.13.
 drivers/tty/tty_jobctrl.c allows a use-after-free attack against TIOCSPGRP, aka CID-54ffccbf053b.
 (CVE-2020-29661)

 - A flaw possibility of race condition and incorrect initialization of the process id was found in the Linux kernel child/parent process identification handling while filtering signal handlers. A local attacker is able to abuse this flaw to bypass checks to send any signal to a privileged process. (CVE-2020-35508)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected kernel package.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-4751-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 147978

File Name: ubuntu_USN-4751-1.nasl

Version: 1.8

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 3/23/2021

Updated: 1/9/2024

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.3

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 5.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2020-29661

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.8

Temporal Score: 7.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2020-29569

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-image-5.8.0-44-generic, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-image-5.8.0-44-generic-lpae, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:linux-image-5.8.0-44-lowlatency

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 2/25/2021

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/22/2020

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2020-25656, CVE-2020-25668, CVE-2020-25669, CVE-2020-25704, CVE-2020-27673, CVE-2020-27675, CVE-2020-27777, CVE-2020-27815, CVE-2020-27830, CVE-2020-27835, CVE-2020-28588, CVE-2020-28941, CVE-2020-28974, CVE-2020-29568, CVE-2020-29569, CVE-2020-29660, CVE-2020-29661, CVE-2020-35508

USN: 4751-1