First Kernel Update with Patch for Spectre Variant 4 Flaw Is Out For Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Finally, first kernel update is out for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with patch for spectre variant 4 flaw. A security issues was affecting the release of Ubuntu and its derivatives.

Jann Horn and Ken Johnson discovered that microprocessors utilizing speculative execution of a memory read may allow unauthorized memory reads via a sidechannel attack. This flaw is known as Spectre Variant 4. A local attacker could use this to expose sensitive information, including kernel memory.

Ubuntu is asking it’s users to immediately update their computer as soon as possible.

New updates is available to 2-bit and 64-bit architectures, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure Cloud, OEM processors, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems, and cloud environments.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to following package versions:

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS:
  linux-image-4.15.0-1008-gcp     4.15.0-1008.8
  linux-image-4.15.0-1009-aws     4.15.0-1009.9
  linux-image-4.15.0-1010-kvm     4.15.0-1010.10
  linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic   4.15.0-22.24
  linux-image-4.15.0-22-generic-lpae  4.15.0-22.24
  linux-image-4.15.0-22-lowlatency  4.15.0-22.24
  linux-image-aws                 4.15.0.1009.9
  linux-image-azure               4.15.0.1012.12
  linux-image-azure-edge          4.15.0.1012.12
  linux-image-gcp                 4.15.0.1008.10
  linux-image-generic             4.15.0.22.23
  linux-image-generic-lpae        4.15.0.22.23
  linux-image-gke                 4.15.0.1008.10
  linux-image-kvm                 4.15.0.1010.10
  linux-image-lowlatency          4.15.0.22.23
  linux-image-oem                 4.15.0.1006.8