It was recently discovered that the NVIDIA graphics drivers incorrectly sanitized user mode inputs. A local attacker could use this issue to possibly gain root privileges. What this means in summary is that NVIDIA graphics drivers could be made to run programs as an administrator. This vulnerability affects the following drivers:
- nvidia-graphics-drivers-304
- nvidia-graphics-drivers-304-updates
- nvidia-graphics-drivers-340
- nvidia-graphics-drivers-340-updates
- nvidia-graphics-drivers-352
- nvidia-graphics-drivers-352-updates vulnerability
A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 15.10
- Ubuntu 15.04
- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Update instructions
The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package version:
- Ubuntu 15.10:
- nvidia-331 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-346 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-352 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-346-updates 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-340-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-340 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-331-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-304 304.131-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-304-updates 304.131-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- nvidia-352-updates 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
- Ubuntu 15.04:
- nvidia-331 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-346 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-352 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-346-updates 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-340-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-340 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-331-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-304 304.131-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-304-updates 304.131-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- nvidia-352-updates 352.63-0ubuntu0.15.04.1
- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS:
- nvidia-331 340.96-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-346 352.63-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-352 352.63-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-346-updates 352.63-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-340-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-340 340.96-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-331-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-304 304.131-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-304-updates 304.131-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- nvidia-352-updates 352.63-0ubuntu0.14.04.1
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
- nvidia-331-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
- nvidia-304 304.131-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
- nvidia-304-updates 304.131-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
- nvidia-340-updates 340.96-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
- nvidia-340 340.96-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
To update your system, please follow these instructions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Upgrades.
After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.