Memory leak in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 and 5 allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a large number of open requests involving O_ATOMICLOOKUP.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2007:1104 :

Updated kernel packages that fix various security issues and several bugs in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel are now available.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames, which affected several wireless LAN modules. In certain situations, a remote attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless network, causing a denial of service (kernel crash). (CVE-2007-4997, Important)

A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

Additionally, the following bugs were fixed :

* when running the 'ls -la' command on an NFSv4 mount point, incorrect file attributes, and outdated file size and timestamp information were returned. As well, symbolic links may have been displayed as actual files.

* a bug which caused the cmirror write path to appear deadlocked after a successful recovery, which may have caused syncing to hang, has been resolved.

* a kernel panic which occurred when manually configuring LCS interfaces on the IBM S/390 has been resolved.

* when running a 32-bit binary on a 64-bit system, it was possible to mmap page at address 0 without flag MAP_FIXED set. This has been resolved in these updated packages.

* the Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) Watchdog did not increment the NMI interrupt counter in '/proc/interrupts' on systems running an AMD Opteron CPU. This caused systems running NMI Watchdog to restart at regular intervals.

* a bug which caused the diskdump utility to run very slowly on devices using Fusion MPT has been resolved.

All users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2007-0993 advisory.

    - CVE-2007-4571 ALSA memory disclosure flaw
      -  Tick divider bugs on x86_64
      - CVE-2007-5494 open(O_ATOMICLOOKUP) leaks dentry
      - [PATCH] jbd: wait for already submitted t_sync_datalist buffer to complete (Possibility of in-place     data destruction)
      - LSPP: audit rule causes kernel 'out of memory' condition and auditd failure
      - [EL5][BUG] Unexpected SIGILL on NFS/Montecito(ia64)
      - task->mm or slab corruption with CIFS
      - CVE-2007-4997 kernel ieee80211 off-by-two integer underflow
      - LSPP: audit enable not picking up all processes
      - [Broadcom 5.1.z bug] Performance regression on 5705 TG3 NICs
      - LTC35628-kexec/kdump kernel hung on Power5+ and Power6 based systems
      - LTC38135-vSCSI client reports 'Device sdX not ready' after deactive/active device on vSCSI server
      - forcedeth driver mishandles MSI interrupts under high load

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames, which affected several wireless LAN modules. In certain situations, a remote attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless network, causing a denial of service (kernel crash). (CVE-2007-4997, Important)

A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

Additionally, the following bugs were fixed :

  - when running the 'ls -la' command on an NFSv4 mount     point, incorrect file attributes, and outdated file size     and timestamp information were returned. As well,     symbolic links may have been displayed as actual files.

  - a bug which caused the cmirror write path to appear     deadlocked after a successful recovery, which may have     caused syncing to hang, has been resolved.

  - a kernel panic which occurred when manually configuring     LCS interfaces on the IBM S/390 has been resolved.

  - when running a 32-bit binary on a 64-bit system, it was     possible to mmap page at address 0 without flag     MAP_FIXED set. This has been resolved in these updated     packages.

  - the Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) Watchdog did not     increment the NMI interrupt counter in     '/proc/interrupts' on systems running an AMD Opteron     CPU. This caused systems running NMI Watchdog to restart     at regular intervals.

  - a bug which caused the diskdump utility to run very     slowly on devices using Fusion MPT has been resolved.

These new kernel packages contain fixes for the following security issues :

A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames affecting several wireless LAN modules. In certain circumstances, a remote attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless network and cause a denial of service (kernel crash).
(CVE-2007-4997, Important).

A flaw was found in the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). A local user who had the ability to read the /proc/driver/snd-page-alloc file could see portions of kernel memory. (CVE-2007-4571, Moderate).

In addition to the security issues described above, several bug fixes preventing possible memory corruption, system crashes, SCSI I/O fails, networking drivers performance regression and journaling block device layer issue were also included.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2007:1104 advisory.

    The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux     operating system.

    These updated packages fix the following security issues:

    A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames, which affected     several wireless LAN modules. In certain situations, a remote attacker     could trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless     network, causing a denial of service (kernel crash).
    (CVE-2007-4997, Important)

    A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch.
    A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory     exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

    Additionally, the following bugs were fixed:

    * when running the ls -la command on an NFSv4 mount point, incorrect     file attributes, and outdated file size and timestamp information were     returned. As well, symbolic links may have been displayed as actual files.

    * a bug which caused the cmirror write path to appear deadlocked after a     successful recovery, which may have caused syncing to hang, has been     resolved.

    * a kernel panic which occurred when manually configuring LCS interfaces on     the IBM S/390 has been resolved.

    * when running a 32-bit binary on a 64-bit system, it was possible to     mmap page at address 0 without flag MAP_FIXED set. This has been     resolved in these updated packages.

    * the Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) Watchdog did not increment the NMI     interrupt counter in /proc/interrupts on systems running an AMD Opteron     CPU. This caused systems running NMI Watchdog to restart at regular     intervals.

    * a bug which caused the diskdump utility to run very slowly on devices     using Fusion MPT has been resolved.

    All users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve     these issues.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Updated kernel packages that fix various security issues and several bugs in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel are now available.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames, which affected several wireless LAN modules. In certain situations, a remote attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless network, causing a denial of service (kernel crash). (CVE-2007-4997, Important)

A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

Additionally, the following bugs were fixed :

* when running the 'ls -la' command on an NFSv4 mount point, incorrect file attributes, and outdated file size and timestamp information were returned. As well, symbolic links may have been displayed as actual files.

* a bug which caused the cmirror write path to appear deadlocked after a successful recovery, which may have caused syncing to hang, has been resolved.

* a kernel panic which occurred when manually configuring LCS interfaces on the IBM S/390 has been resolved.

* when running a 32-bit binary on a 64-bit system, it was possible to mmap page at address 0 without flag MAP_FIXED set. This has been resolved in these updated packages.

* the Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) Watchdog did not increment the NMI interrupt counter in '/proc/interrupts' on systems running an AMD Opteron CPU. This caused systems running NMI Watchdog to restart at regular intervals.

* a bug which caused the diskdump utility to run very slowly on devices using Fusion MPT has been resolved.

All users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these issues.

Updated kernel packages that fix various security issues in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel are now available.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.

These new kernel packages contain fixes for the following security issues :

A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames affecting several wireless LAN modules. In certain circumstances, a remote attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless network and cause a denial of service (kernel crash).
(CVE-2007-4997, Important).

A flaw was found in the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). A local user who had the ability to read the /proc/driver/snd-page-alloc file could see portions of kernel memory. (CVE-2007-4571, Moderate).

In addition to the security issues described above, several bug fixes preventing possible memory corruption, system crashes, SCSI I/O fails, networking drivers performance regression and journaling block device layer issue were also included.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users are advised to upgrade to these packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

Red Hat would like to credit Vasily Averin, Chris Evans, and Neil Kettle for reporting the security issues corrected by this update.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
67619	Oracle Linux 4 : kernel (ELSA-2007-1104)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67595	Oracle Linux 5 : Important: / kernel (ELSA-2007-0993)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
60335	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL4.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	high
60318	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	high
29774	RHEL 4 : kernel (RHSA-2007:1104)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
29751	CentOS 4 : kernel (CESA-2007:1104)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
28363	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2007:0993)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2007-5494

medium

Tenable Plugins

high

medium

high

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medium

high

high