14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical has revealed information in a security notice about a dpkg vulnerability that has been identified and fixed in Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
Dpkg (Debian package management system) is a really important component in the Ubuntu systems and it’s used extensively. This means that any kind of problem with it needs to be fixed quickly. The maintainer has been quick to update it.
According to the security notice, "Hanno Boeck discovered that the dpkg-deb tool incorrectly handled certain old style Debian binary packages. If a user or an automated system were tricked into unpacking a specially crafted binary package, a remote attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code."
For a more detailed description of the problems, you can have a look at Canonical's security notification. Users should upgrade their Linux distribution in order to correct this issue.
The vulnerability can be fixed by upgrading your system(s) to the latest dpkg package specific to each distribution. To apply the patch, users 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):
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade