1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-3530-1

USN-3530-1: WebKitGTK+ vulnerabilities

Publication date

11 January 2018

Overview

WebKitGTK+ could be made to expose sensitive information.

Releases

Packages

  • webkit2gtk - Web content engine library for GTK+

Details

It was discovered that speculative execution performed by modern CPUs
could leak information through a timing side-channel attack, and that
this could be exploited in web browser JavaScript engines. If a user were
tricked in to opening a specially crafted website, an attacker could
potentially exploit this to obtain sensitive information from other
domains, bypassing same-origin restrictions. (CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715)

It was discovered that speculative execution performed by modern CPUs
could leak information through a timing side-channel attack, and that
this could be exploited in web browser JavaScript engines. If a user were
tricked in to opening a specially crafted website, an attacker could
potentially exploit this to obtain sensitive information from other
domains, bypassing same-origin restrictions. (CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715)

Update instructions

This update uses a new upstream release, which includes additional bug fixes. After a standard system update you need to restart any applications that use WebKitGTK+, such as Epiphany, to make all the necessary changes.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

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

Ubuntu Release Package Version
17.10 artful libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18 –  2.18.5-0ubuntu0.17.10.1
libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 –  2.18.5-0ubuntu0.17.10.1
17.04 zesty libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18 –  2.18.5-0ubuntu0.17.04.1
libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 –  2.18.5-0ubuntu0.17.04.1
16.04 xenial libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0-18 –  2.18.5-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 –  2.18.5-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

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References

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