In order to fix the problem, Ubuntu users will have to perform a system update

Jul 24, 2014 18:22 GMT  ·  By

Canonical has revealed details in a security notice about an acpi-support vulnerability in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) operating system that has been found and corrected.

The Ubuntu developers have closed an acpi-support exploit, and users should update their system in order to correct the problem.

According to the security notice, “CESG discovered that acpi-support incorrectly handled certain privileged operations when checking for power management daemons. A local attacker could use this flaw to execute arbitrary code and elevate privileges to root.”

For a more detailed description of the problems, you can see Canonical's security notification. You should upgrade your Linux distribution in order to correct this issue.

The flaw can be fixed if you upgrade your system(s) to the latest acpi-support packages. To apply the patch, you can simply run the Update Manager application.

If you don't want to use the Software Updater, you can open a terminal and enter the following commands (you will need to be root):

code
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes and you don’t have to restart the system.