Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in many iterations and distributions of Linux.
The flaws, as reported by Linux vulnerability researcher Jens Axboe on Wednesday, affect versions of Ubuntu, Suse, Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian and iterations of the Linux kernel up to, but not including, Linux 2.6.24.1.
The most serious flaw is a memory-access vulnerability. Rated as "high" severity (the second highest rating) by the US National Vulnerability Database, the memory-access validation flaw allows a local attacker to gain root administrator privileges via "crafted arguments in a vmsplice system call".
Exploit code for this vulnerability is available online.
Security site SecurityFocus has provided links to patches for these vulnerabilities.
Talkback
A patch to block the main security vulnerability was issued within hours of identification. Permanent patch was issued Feb 10, before your story!
You might want to compare that to Microsoft who on average, take months to patch even serious security flaws, not to mention the hundreds of flaws in comparison to a few in Linux.