Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL5.x i386/x86_64 (20130416)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 66016

Synopsis

The remote Scientific Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

This update fixes the following security issues :

- A flaw was found in the Xen netback driver implementation in the Linux kernel. A privileged guest user with access to a para-virtualized network device could use this flaw to cause a long loop in netback, leading to a denial of service that could potentially affect the entire system. (CVE-2013-0216, Moderate)

- A flaw was found in the Xen PCI device back-end driver implementation in the Linux kernel. A privileged guest user in a guest that has a PCI passthrough device could use this flaw to cause a denial of service that could potentially affect the entire system. (CVE-2013-0231, Moderate)

- A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the IP packet transformation framework (XFRM) implementation in the Linux kernel. A local user who has the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2013-1826, Moderate)

- Information leak flaws were found in the XFRM implementation in the Linux kernel. A local user who has the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use these flaws to leak kernel stack memory to user-space. (CVE-2012-6537, Low)

- An information leak flaw was found in the logical link control (LLC) implementation in the Linux kernel. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to leak kernel stack memory to user-space. (CVE-2012-6542, Low)

- Two information leak flaws were found in the Linux kernel's Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) subsystem. A local, unprivileged user could use these flaws to leak kernel stack memory to user-space. (CVE-2012-6546, Low)

- An information leak flaw was found in the TUN/TAP device driver in the Linux kernel's networking implementation.
A local user with access to a TUN/TAP virtual interface could use this flaw to leak kernel stack memory to user-space. (CVE-2012-6547, Low)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

- The IPv4 code did not correctly update the Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) of the designed interface when receiving ICMP Fragmentation Needed packets.
Consequently, a remote host did not respond correctly to ping attempts. With this update, the IPv4 code has been modified so the MTU of the designed interface is adjusted as expected in this situation. The ping command now provides the expected output.

- Previously, the be2net code expected the last word of an MCC completion message from the firmware to be transferred by direct memory access (DMA) at once.
However, this is not always true, and could therefore cause the BUG_ON() macro to be triggered in the be_mcc_compl_is_new() function, consequently leading to a kernel panic. The BUG_ON() macro has been removed from be_mcc_compl_is_new(), and the kernel panic no longer occurs in this scenario.

- Previously, the NFSv3 server incorrectly converted 64-bit cookies to 32-bit. Consequently, the cookies became invalid, which affected all file system operations depending on these cookies, such as the READDIR operation that is used to read entries from a directory. This led to various problems, such as exported directories being empty or displayed incorrectly, or an endless loop of the READDIRPLUS procedure which could potentially cause a buffer overflow. This update modifies knfsd code so that 64-bit cookies are now handled correctly and all file system operations work as expected.

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?5fb87711

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 66016

File Name: sl_20130416_kernel_on_SL5_x.nasl

Version: 1.6

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 4/18/2013

Updated: 1/14/2021

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.2

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-pae, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-pae-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-pae-devel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debug, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debug-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debug-devel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debuginfo-common, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-doc, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-headers, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-xen, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-xen-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-xen-devel, x-cpe:/o:fermilab:scientific_linux

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Patch Publication Date: 4/16/2013

Vulnerability Publication Date: 2/13/2013

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2012-6537, CVE-2012-6542, CVE-2012-6546, CVE-2012-6547, CVE-2013-0216, CVE-2013-0217, CVE-2013-0231, CVE-2013-1826