Last night, Canonical released several security patches for its Linux Kernel. In total, more than 20 security bugs that affected kernel versions 4.18, 4.15, 4,4 and 3.13, the kernels that are still supported, have been corrected. Linux Kernel 5.0.x, which can now be installed manually and will be available in Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo, is not affected. Other versions higher than v4.18 could be affected, but no patch has been released for these as they are non-LTS versions.
New versions of the Linux kernel are available for all supported operating systems, that we remember that at the moment there are Ubuntu 18.10 and three LTS versions, which are Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 14.04, the 2014 version that receives these patches because the end of its life cycle (not commercial) will take place next April 30. These patches have also been released for all the official Ubuntu flavors, which we remember are Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Budgie and Ubuntu Studio.
Canonical releases kernel security updates for Ubuntu
One of the bugs that they have corrected is in the ALSA subsystem, and it allowed a local malicious user causing the system to crash (crash) and expose sensitive host information to a virtual machine. And, as usual, for a malicious user to exploit most flaws in Linux, they have to have physical access to the computer.
All the updates are now available for installation from the software center of the Ubuntu operating system and all its official flavors, among which we remember that there is an Ubuntu MATE version for Raspberry Pi. Canonical encourages all users to update as soon as possible. Once installed, it is recommended to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Excellent!