USN-8905-2: new linux-gcp kernel for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, reboot required

Canonical published advisory USN-8905-2 on 9 October 2026, fixing a long series of vulnerabilities in the linux-gcp kernel, the Linux build used on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (noble) instances hosted on Google Cloud Platform. For anyone running production machines on GCP, this is an update to schedule immediately, not to defer to the next maintenance cycle.\n\n## What it fixes\n\nThe official Ubuntu advisory explains that several security issues were discovered in the Linux kernel, and that an attacker could potentially use them to compromise the system. The fixes touch a very broad range of subsystems: from the ARM32, ARM64, MIPS and x86 architectures, to network drivers (including the Mellanox driver and the Microsoft Azure Network Adapter), as well as the Ext4 filesystem, FUSE, the IPv4/IPv6 networking stack, Netfilter, Bluetooth and the KVM subsystem. The bulletin lists over 220 CVEs from 2026 linked to these fixes, a sign of just how wide-ranging the update is.\n\n## Version and packages affected\n\nThe fix applies exclusively to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The packages to be updated are linux-image-6.8.0-1070-gcp, linux-image-6.8.0-1070-gcp-64k, linux-image-gcp-6.8, linux-image-gcp-64k-6.8, linux-image-gcp-64k-lts-24.04 and linux-image-gcp-lts-24.04, all brought up to version 6.8.0-1070.78.\n\n## ABI and reboot considerations\n\nThe bulletin notes that the update involves an unavoidable ABI change, meaning any third-party kernel module installed on the instance must be recompiled and reinstalled. Anyone who hasn't manually removed the standard kernel metapackages (such as linux-generic) will have this handled automatically as part of the system update. After the patches are installed, as with any kernel update, the instance needs to be rebooted for the changes to take effect.\n\n## What to do\n\nOn GCP instances running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS: run the standard system update, check for any third-party modules (custom drivers, DKMS modules) and schedule a reboot window. Canonical also reminds users that Ubuntu Pro offers ten years of security coverage across more than 25,000 packages in the Main and Universe repositories, free of charge for up to five machines.\n