Canonical published a new security notice to inform the community about the availability of an important kernel update for the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system.

Today's kernel update is also the first one to have been released for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS since its official launch on April 21, 2016, and it appears to be a critical issue, patching a total of fifteen vulnerabilities that have recently been discovered by various developers and Linux kernel hackers.

It will be impractical for us to list here all the fifteen vulnerabilities that have been patched in the Linux kernel packages of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), so we recommend that you read the Ubuntu Security Notice USN-2965-1 announcement published by Canonical on May 6, 2016.

However, it is crucial to note here the fact that these new vulnerabilities are also affecting the Linux kernel of the Raspberry Pi 2 port of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, as well as the Linux kernel for Snapdragon processors, also for the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system.

Users are urged to update their systems immediately

All Ubuntu 16.04 LTS users are urged to update their systems as soon as possible, as the new kernel version (linux-image-4.4.0-22 4.4.0-22.39 for Ubuntu Desktop and Server, linux-image-4.4.0-1010-raspi2 4.4.0-1010.12 for Ubuntu for Raspberry Pi 2, and linux-image-4.4.0-1013-snapdragon 4.4.0-1013.14 for Snapdragon processors) is now live.

Some of you might have already received the new bubble notifications about an important OS update, but if you missed that, please open the Software Updater utility, let it fetch the latest updates and then click on the "Install All" button to apply them. As usual, after a kernel update, you will have to reboot your computer.