1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-7860-3

USN-7860-3: Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerability

Publication date

7 November 2025

Overview

The system could be made to expose sensitive information.

Releases

Packages

  • linux-aws-fips - Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems with FIPS
  • linux-fips - Linux kernel with FIPS
  • linux-gcp-fips - Linux kernel for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) systems with FIPS

Details

Jean-Claude Graf, Sandro Rüegge, Ali Hajiabadi, and Kaveh Razavi discovered
that the Linux kernel contained insufficient branch predictor isolation
between a guest and a userspace hypervisor for certain processors. This
flaw is known as VMSCAPE. An attacker in a guest VM could possibly use this
to expose sensitive information from the host OS.

Jean-Claude Graf, Sandro Rüegge, Ali Hajiabadi, and Kaveh Razavi discovered
that the Linux kernel contained insufficient branch predictor isolation
between a guest and a userspace hypervisor for certain processors. This
flaw is known as VMSCAPE. An attacker in a guest VM could possibly use this
to expose sensitive information from the host OS.

Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to reboot your computer to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

ATTENTION: Due to an unavoidable ABI change the kernel updates have been given a new version number, which requires you to recompile and reinstall all third party kernel modules you might have installed. Unless you manually uninstalled the standard kernel metapackages (e.g. linux-generic, linux-generic-lts-RELEASE, linux-virtual, linux-powerpc), a standard system upgrade will automatically perform this as well.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
22.04 LTS jammy linux-image-5.15.0-1096-aws-fips –  5.15.0-1096.103+fips1  
linux-image-5.15.0-1096-gcp-fips –  5.15.0-1096.105+fips1  
linux-image-5.15.0-161-fips –  5.15.0-161.171+fips1  
linux-image-aws-fips –  5.15.0.1096.92  
linux-image-aws-fips-5.15 –  5.15.0.1096.92  
linux-image-fips –  5.15.0.161.93  
linux-image-fips-5.15 –  5.15.0.161.93  
linux-image-gcp-fips –  5.15.0.1096.86  
linux-image-gcp-fips-5.15 –  5.15.0.1096.86  

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References

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