Boothole Threat

Support & Help Requests
1

I have no idea what this actually means, can someone explain it to me like I'm five?


What commands do I run to fix the vulnerability? Or will it patch itself during next security update? I am running Ubuntu mate 20.04.
I'm very confused.
2

As long as you are fully updated you will be fine the update with the patch came a couple days ago, it is also not as serious as they make it sound because someone would already have to have compromised your system to use it in the first place

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3

Well... Those who are five do not bother themselves with such a nonsense. And I (being dozen times older) totally agree with them!

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4

The best sources of information on this IMO are from the Ubuntu Security team. Alex Murray has written up an excellent blog post: https://ubuntu.com/blog/mitigating-boothole-theres-a-hole-in-the-boot-cve-2020-10713-and-related-vulnerabilities

Further details are available on the Ubuntu Security Podcast (which I highly recommend), the discussion for this begins about 8 minutes in.

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5

Hello Katherine

This is a general remark, to help give some perspective:
[part A]
Many (but not all) reported security threats for Linux computer systems require either "physical" access or "administrator" privileges to work.

[part B]
Unless you are a "high-value" target, most of these bad things will not be directed at you, and will not find their way to your computer, unless you go looking for them.

[part C]
The "Ubuntu" base of Ubuntu-Mate receives security updates from the Ubuntu security team. I install all available updates every day (switch on, update, work), I suggest you consider doing the same. If you do that, you will be using one of the most secure computer operating systems available. :slightly_smiling_face:

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6

@Katherine_Winters : To exploit this critical security vulnerability, the attacker must have physical access to the computer, its keyboard, the screen and reboot the system. Otherwise, we don't care.