A new release of the Ubuntu Cloud Images for stable Ubuntu release 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) is available at [1]. These new images superseded the existing images [2]. Images are available for download or immediate use on EC2 via publish AMI ids. Users who wish to update their existing installations can do so with:
   'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo reboot'.

The following packages have been updated. Please see the full changelogs
for a complete listing of changes:
 * cloud-init: 21.2-3-g899bfaa9-0ubuntu2~18.04.1 => 21.3-1-g6803368d-0ubuntu1~18.04.4 
 * distro-info-data: 0.37ubuntu0.11 => 0.37ubuntu0.13 
 * dnsmasq: 2.79-1ubuntu0.4 => 2.79-1ubuntu0.5 
 * linux-meta: 4.15.0.159.148 => 4.15.0.161.150 
 * linux-signed: 4.15.0-159.167 => 4.15.0-161.169 
 * netplan.io: 0.99-0ubuntu3~18.04.4 => 0.99-0ubuntu3~18.04.5 
 * tzdata: 2021a-0ubuntu0.18.04 => 2021a-2ubuntu0.18.04 


The following is a complete changelog for this image.
new: {'linux-modules-4.15.0-161-generic': '4.15.0-161.169', 'linux-headers-4.15.0-161': '4.15.0-161.169', 'linux-headers-4.15.0-161-generic': '4.15.0-161.169'}
removed: {'linux-modules-4.15.0-159-generic': '4.15.0-159.167', 'linux-headers-4.15.0-159-generic': '4.15.0-159.167', 'linux-headers-4.15.0-159': '4.15.0-159.167'}
changed: ['cloud-init', 'distro-info-data', 'dnsmasq-base', 'libnetplan0:amd64', 'linux-headers-generic', 'linux-headers-virtual', 'linux-image-4.15.0-161-generic', 'linux-image-virtual', 'linux-virtual', 'netplan.io', 'nplan', 'tzdata']
new snaps: {}
removed snaps: {}
changed snaps: []
==== cloud-init: 21.2-3-g899bfaa9-0ubuntu2~18.04.1 => 21.3-1-g6803368d-0ubuntu1~18.04.4 ====
====     cloud-init
  * cherry-pick 9c147e83: Allow disabling of network activation (SC-307)
    (#1048) (LP: #1938299)
  * d/cloud-init.templates: Add Oracle datasource support
  * cherry-pick 612e3908: Add connectivity_url to Oracle's
    EphemeralDHCPv4 (#988) (LP: #1939603)
  * cherry-pick dc227869: Set Azure to apply networking config every BOOT
    (#1023)
  * cherry-pick 28e56d99: Azure: Retry dhcp on timeouts when polling
    reprovisiondata
  * cherry-pick e69a8874: Set Azure to only update metadata on
    BOOT_NEW_INSTANCE
  * d/cloud-init.templates: Add VMware datasource support
  * d/control: Add dependencies on python3-netifaces for VMware ds
  * d/patches/ubuntu-advantage-revert-tip.patch: drop revert patch
    + ubuntu-advantage-tools completed SRU to bionic. Bionic now
      compatible with upstream ua python-client CLI behavior.
  * refresh patches:
   + debian/patches/ec2-dont-apply-full-imds-network-config.patch
   + debian/patches/openstack-no-network-config.patch
   + debian/patches/renderer-do-not-prefer-netplan.patch
  * New upstream snapshot. (LP: #1940871)
    - testing: Fix ssh keys integration test (#992)
    - Release 21.3 (#993)
    - Azure: During primary nic detection, check interface status continuously
      before rebinding again (#990) [aswinrajamannar]
    - Fix home permissions modified by ssh module (SC-338) (#984)
    - Add integration test for sensitive jinja substitution (#986)
    - Ignore hotplug socket when collecting logs (#985)
    - testing: Add missing mocks to test_vmware.py (#982)
    - add Zadara Edge Cloud Platform to the supported clouds list (#963)
      [sarahwzadara]
    - testing: skip upgrade tests on LXD VMs (#980)
    - Only invoke hotplug socket when functionality is enabled (#952)
    - Revert unnecessary lcase in ds-identify (#978) [Andrew Kutz]
    - cc_resolv_conf: fix typos (#969) [Shreenidhi Shedi]
    - Replace broken httpretty tests with mock (SC-324) (#973)
    - Azure: Check if interface is up after sleep when trying to bring it up
      (#972) [aswinrajamannar]
    - Update dscheck_VMware's rpctool check (#970) [Shreenidhi Shedi]
    - Azure: Logging the detected interfaces (#968) [Moustafa Moustafa]
    - Change netifaces dependency to 0.10.4 (#965) [Andrew Kutz]
    - Azure: Limit polling network metadata on connection errors (#961)
      [aswinrajamannar]
    - Update inconsistent indentation (#962) [Andrew Kutz]
    - cc_puppet: support AIO installations and more (#960) [Gabriel Nagy]
    - Add Puppet contributors to CLA signers (#964) [Noah Fontes]
    - Datasource for VMware (#953) [Andrew Kutz]
    - photon: refactor hostname handling and add networkd activator (#958)
      [sshedi]
    - Stop copying ssh system keys and check folder permissions (#956)
      [Emanuele Giuseppe Esposito]
    - testing: port remaining cloud tests to integration testing framework
      (SC-191) (#955)
    - generate contents for ovf-env.xml when provisioning via IMDS (#959)
      [Anh Vo]
    - Add support for EuroLinux 7 && EuroLinux 8 (#957) [Aleksander Baranowski]
    - Implementing device_aliases as described in docs (#945) [Mal Graty]
    - testing: fix test_ssh_import_id.py (#954)
    - Add ability to manage fallback network config on PhotonOS (#941) [sshedi]
    - Add VZLinux support (#951) [eb3095]
    - VMware: add network-config support in ovf-env.xml (#947) [PengpengSun]
    - Update pylint to v2.9.3 and fix the new issues it spots (#946)
      [Paride Legovini]
    - Azure: mount default provisioning iso before try device listing (#870)
      [Anh Vo]
    - Document known hotplug limitations (#950)
    - Initial hotplug support (#936)
    - Fix MIME policy failure on python version upgrade (#934)
    - run-container: fixup the centos repos baseurls when using http_proxy
      (#944) [Paride Legovini]
    - tools: add support for building rpms on rocky linux (#940)
    - ssh-util: allow cloudinit to merge all ssh keys into a custom user file,
      defined in AuthorizedKeysFile (#937) [Emanuele Giuseppe Esposito]
    - VMware: new "allow_raw_data" switch (#939) [xiaofengw-vmware]
    - bump pycloudlib version (#935)
    - add renanrodrigo as a contributor (#938) [Renan Rodrigo]
    - testing: simplify test_upgrade.py (#932)
    - freebsd/net_v1 format: read MTU from root (#930) [Gonri Le Bouder]
    - Add new network activators to bring up interfaces (#919)
    - - Detect a Python version change and clear the cache (#857)
      [Robert Schweikert]
    - cloud_tests: fix the Impish release name (#931) [Paride Legovini]
    - Removed distro specific network code from Photon (#929) [sshedi]
    - Add support for VMware PhotonOS (#909) [sshedi]
    - cloud_tests: add impish release definition (#927) [Paride Legovini]
    - docs: fix stale links rename master branch to main (#926)
    - Fix DNS in NetworkState (SC-133) (#923)
    - tests: Add 'adhoc' mark for integration tests (#925)
    - Fix the spelling of "DigitalOcean" (#924) [Mark Mercado]
    - Small Doc Update for ReportEventStack and Test (#920) [Mike Russell]
    - Replace deprecated collections.Iterable with abc replacement (#922)
    - testing: OCI availability domain is now required (SC-59) (#910)
    - add DragonFlyBSD support (#904) [Gonri Le Bouder]
    - Use instance-data-sensitive.json in jinja templates (SC-117) (#917)
    - doc: Update NoCloud docs stating required files (#918)
    - build-on-netbsd: don't pin a specific py3 version (#913)
      [Gonri Le Bouder]
    - - Create the log file with 640 permissions (#858) [Robert Schweikert]
    - Allow braces to appear in dhclient output (#911) [eb3095]
    - Docs: Replace all freenode references with libera (#912)
    - openbsd/net: flush the route table on net restart (#908)
      [Gonri Le Bouder]
    - Add Rocky Linux support to cloud-init (#906) [Louis Abel]
    - Add "esposem" as contributor (#907) [Emanuele Giuseppe Esposito]
    - Add integration test for #868 (#901)
    - Added support for importing keys via primary/security mirror clauses
      (#882) [Paul Goins]
    - [examples] config-user-groups expire in the future (#902)
      [Geert Stappers]
    - BSD: static network, set the mtu (#894) [Gonri Le Bouder]
    - Add integration test for lp-1920939 (#891)
    - Fix unit tests breaking from new httpretty version (#903)
    - Allow user control over update events (#834)
==== distro-info-data: 0.37ubuntu0.11 => 0.37ubuntu0.13 ====
====     distro-info-data
  * Add Ubuntu 22.04, Jammy Jellyfish (LP: #1947368).
  * Update ubuntu.csv contents to what we had in hirsute+.
  * Update ubuntu.csv for trusty and xenial ESM extended dates
    (LP: #1946137).
==== dnsmasq: 2.79-1ubuntu0.4 => 2.79-1ubuntu0.5 ====
====     dnsmasq-base
  * src/forward.c: add missing EDNS0 section. (LP: #1785383)
==== linux-meta: 4.15.0.159.148 => 4.15.0.161.150 ====
====     linux-headers-generic linux-headers-virtual linux-image-virtual linux-virtual
  * Bump ABI 4.15.0-161
  * Bump ABI 4.15.0-160
  * Packaging resync (LP: #1786013)
    - [Packaging] resync debian/dkms-versions from main package
==== linux-signed: 4.15.0-159.167 => 4.15.0-161.169 ====
====     linux-image-4.15.0-161-generic
  * Master version: 4.15.0-161.169
  * Master version: 4.15.0-160.168
==== netplan.io: 0.99-0ubuntu3~18.04.4 => 0.99-0ubuntu3~18.04.5 ====
====     libnetplan0:amd64 netplan.io nplan
  * d/p/0006-dbus-cli-implement-io.netplan.Netplan.Generate-208.patch:
    Implement the io.netplan.Netplan.Generate() DBus API, to allow calling
    'generate' from within a snap (LP: #1926442)
  * Update debian/gbp.conf
==== tzdata: 2021a-0ubuntu0.18.04 => 2021a-2ubuntu0.18.04 ====
====     tzdata
  * Merge from Debian unstable (LP: #1945527). Remaining changes:
    - Restore old SystemV timezones.
  * Set urgency to critical as the Samoa DST change is already effective.
  * Update Provides to tzdata-bookworm.
  * debian/control: remove Adam Conrad from Uploaders. RIP.  Closes: #986954.
  * Cherry-pick patches from tadata-2021b until the upstream situation gets
    less confused:
    - 01-no-leap-second-2021-12-31.patch: No leap second on 2021-12-31 as per
      IERS Bulletin C 62.
    - 02-samoa-dst.patch: Samoa no longer observes DST.
    - 03-jordan-dst.patch: Jordan now starts DST on February's last Thursday.

--
[1] http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/bionic/release-20211021/
[2] http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/bionic/release-20210928/