Updated kernel packages that resolve several security issues and fix various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

[Updated 12th November 2008] The original packages distributed with this errata had a bug which prevented the Xen kernel booting on older hardware. We have updated the packages to correct this bug.

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

* the Xen implementation did not prevent applications running in a para-virtualized guest from modifying CR4 TSC. This could cause a local denial of service. (CVE-2007-5907, Important)

* Tavis Ormandy reported missing boundary checks in the Virtual Dynamic Shared Objects (vDSO) implementation. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service or escalate privileges.
(CVE-2008-3527, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could allow a local unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, CVE-2008-3833, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel splice implementation. This could cause a local denial of service when there is a certain failure in the add_to_page_cache_lru() function. (CVE-2008-4302, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel when running on AMD64 systems.
During a context switch, EFLAGS were being neither saved nor restored.
This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2006-5755, Low)

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel virtual memory implementation.
This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2372, Low)

* an integer overflow was discovered in the Linux kernel Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) implementation. This could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service. By default, remote DCCP is blocked by SELinux. (CVE-2008-3276, Low)

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs :

* random32() seeding has been improved.

* in a multi-core environment, a race between the QP async event-handler and the destro_qp() function could occur. This led to unpredictable results during invalid memory access, which could lead to a kernel crash.

* a format string was omitted in the call to the request_module() function.

* a stack overflow caused by an infinite recursion bug in the binfmt_misc kernel module was corrected.

* the ata_scsi_rbuf_get() and ata_scsi_rbuf_put() functions now check for scatterlist usage before calling kmap_atomic().

* a sentinel NUL byte was added to the device_write() function to ensure that lspace.name is NUL-terminated.

* in the character device driver, a range_is_allowed() check was added to the read_mem() and write_mem() functions. It was possible for an illegitimate application to bypass these checks, and access /dev/mem beyond the 1M limit by calling mmap_mem() instead. Also, the parameters of range_is_allowed() were changed to cleanly handle greater than 32-bits of physical address on 32-bit architectures.

* some of the newer Nehalem-based systems declare their CPU DSDT entries as type 'Alias'. During boot, this caused an 'Error attaching device data' message to be logged.

* the evtchn event channel device lacked locks and memory barriers.
This has led to xenstore becoming unresponsive on the Itanium(r) architecture.

* sending of gratuitous ARP packets in the Xen frontend network driver is now delayed until the backend signals that its carrier status has been processed by the stack.

* on forcedeth devices, whenever setting ethtool parameters for link speed, the device could stop receiving interrupts.

* the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option did not allow text to be appended to files.

* the gettimeofday() function returned a backwards time on Intel(r) 64.

* residual-count corrections during UNDERRUN handling were added to the qla2xxx driver.

* the fix for a small quirk was removed for certain Adaptec controllers for which it caused problems.

* the 'xm trigger init' command caused a domain panic if a userland application was running on a guest on the Intel(r) 64 architecture.

Users of kernel should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2008:0973 :

Updated kernel packages that resolve several security issues and fix various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

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.

This update addresses the following security issues :

* Tavis Ormandy discovered a deficiency in the Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to prepare and run a specially crafted binary which would use this deficiency to leak uninitialized and potentially sensitive data.
(CVE-2008-0598, Important)

* a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition (SIT) INET6 implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136, Important)

* missing capability checks were found in the SBNI WAN driver which could allow a local user to bypass intended capability restrictions.
(CVE-2008-3525, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, Important)

* a buffer overflow flaw was found in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6063, Moderate)

* multiple NULL pointer dereferences were found in various Linux kernel network drivers. These drivers were missing checks for terminal validity, which could allow privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-2812, Moderate)

* a deficiency was found in the Linux kernel virtual filesystem (VFS) implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to attempt file creation within deleted directories, possibly causing a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3275, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* the incorrect kunmap function was used in nfs_xdr_readlinkres.
kunmap() was used where kunmap_atomic() should have been. As a consequence, if an NFSv2 or NFSv3 server exported a volume containing a symlink which included a path equal to or longer than the local system's PATH_MAX, accessing the link caused a kernel oops. This has been corrected in this update.

* mptctl_gettargetinfo did not check if pIoc3 was NULL before using it as a pointer. This caused a kernel panic in mptctl_gettargetinfo in some circumstances. A check has been added which prevents this.

* lost tick compensation code in the timer interrupt routine triggered without apparent cause. When running as a fully-virtualized client, this spurious triggering caused the 64-bit version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 to present highly inaccurate times. With this update the lost tick compensation code is turned off when the operating system is running as a fully-virtualized client under Xen or VMware(r).

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users should install this updated kernel which addresses these vulnerabilities and fixes these bugs.

Updated kernel packages that resolve several security issues and fix various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

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.

This update addresses the following security issues :

* Tavis Ormandy discovered a deficiency in the Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to prepare and run a specially crafted binary which would use this deficiency to leak uninitialized and potentially sensitive data.
(CVE-2008-0598, Important)

* a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition (SIT) INET6 implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136, Important)

* missing capability checks were found in the SBNI WAN driver which could allow a local user to bypass intended capability restrictions.
(CVE-2008-3525, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, Important)

* a buffer overflow flaw was found in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6063, Moderate)

* multiple NULL pointer dereferences were found in various Linux kernel network drivers. These drivers were missing checks for terminal validity, which could allow privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-2812, Moderate)

* a deficiency was found in the Linux kernel virtual filesystem (VFS) implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to attempt file creation within deleted directories, possibly causing a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3275, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* the incorrect kunmap function was used in nfs_xdr_readlinkres.
kunmap() was used where kunmap_atomic() should have been. As a consequence, if an NFSv2 or NFSv3 server exported a volume containing a symlink which included a path equal to or longer than the local system's PATH_MAX, accessing the link caused a kernel oops. This has been corrected in this update.

* mptctl_gettargetinfo did not check if pIoc3 was NULL before using it as a pointer. This caused a kernel panic in mptctl_gettargetinfo in some circumstances. A check has been added which prevents this.

* lost tick compensation code in the timer interrupt routine triggered without apparent cause. When running as a fully-virtualized client, this spurious triggering caused the 64-bit version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 to present highly inaccurate times. With this update the lost tick compensation code is turned off when the operating system is running as a fully-virtualized client under Xen or VMware(r).

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users should install this updated kernel which addresses these vulnerabilities and fixes these bugs.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2008-0957.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2008-0973.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2008-0972.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
43713	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2008:0957)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	1/6/2010	1/4/2021	high
67763	Oracle Linux 3 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0973)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	8/24/2021	high
35186	CentOS 3 : kernel (CESA-2008:0973)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	12/17/2008	1/4/2021	high
801458	CentOS RHSA-2008-0957 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic			high
801460	CentOS RHSA-2008-0973 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic			high
801459	CentOS RHSA-2008-0972 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic			high

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