Affected: Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS: linux-aws, Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS: linux-azure, Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS: linux-lts-xenial, Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS: linux, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS: linux, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS: linux-aws, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS: linux-aws-hwe, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS: linux-azure, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS: linux-gcp, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS: linux-hwe and 187 more

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: exec: Fix ToCToU between perm check and set-uid/gid usage When opening a file for exec via do_filp_open(), permission checking is done against the file's metadata at that moment, and on success, a file pointer is passed back. Much later in the execve() code path, the file metadata (specifically mode, uid, and gid) is used to determine if/how to set the uid and gid. However, those values may have changed since the permissions check, meaning the execution may gain unintended privileges. For example, if a file could change permissions from executable and not set-id: ---------x 1 root root 16048 Aug 7 13:16 target to set-id and non-executable: ---S------ 1 root root 16048 Aug 7 13:16 target it is possible to gain root privileges when execution should have been disallowed. While this race condition is rare in real-world scenarios, it has been observed (and proven exploitable) when package managers are updating the setuid bits of installed programs. Such files start with being world-executable but then are adjusted to be group-exec with a set-uid bit. For example, "chmod o-x,u+s target" makes "target" executable only by uid "root" and gid "cdrom", while also becoming setuid-root: -rwxr-xr-x 1 root cdrom 16048 Aug 7 13:16 target becomes: -rwsr-xr-- 1 root cdrom 16048 Aug 7 13:16 target But racing the chmod means users without group "cdrom" membership can get the permission to execute "target" just before the ch…