Updated Apport packages has been released for Ubuntu Linux 14.04 ESM to address a regression. Ubuntu Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) is a paid security subscription provided by Canonical Ltd.

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Ubuntu Security Notice USN-4171-4

November 05, 2019

apport regression
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A security issue affects these releases of Ubuntu and its derivatives:
- Ubuntu 14.04 ESM

Summary:

USN-4171-2 introduced a regression in Apport.

Software Description:
- apport: automatically generate crash reports for debugging
Details:

USN-4171-2 fixed a vulnerability in Apport. The update caused a regression in the Python Apport library. This update fixes the problem for Ubuntu 14.04 ESM.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Original advisory details:

Kevin Backhouse discovered Apport would read its user-controlled settings file as the root user. This could be used by a local attacker to possibly crash Apport or have other unspecified consequences. (CVE-2019-11481)
Sander Bos discovered a race-condition in Apport during core dump creation. This could be used by a local attacker to generate a crash reportfor a privileged process that is readable by an unprivileged user. (CVE-2019-11482)

Sander Bos discovered Apport mishandled crash dumps originating from containers. This could be used by a local attacker to generate a crash report for a privileged process that is readable by an unprivileged user. (CVE-2019-11483)

Sander Bos discovered Apport mishandled lock-file creation. This could be used by a local attacker to cause a denial of service against Apport. (CVE-2019-11485)

Kevin Backhouse discovered Apport read various process-specific files with elevated privileges during crash dump generation. This could could be used by a local attacker to generate a crash report for a privileged process that is readable by an unprivileged user. (CVE-2019-15790)
Update instructions:

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

Ubuntu 14.04 ESM:
apport 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3
python-apport 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3
python3-apport 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.29+esm3

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.
References:
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-4
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4171-1
https://launchpad.net/bugs/XXXXXX