This kernel update fixes various bugs and also several security issues :

CVE-2008-4576: Fixed a crash in SCTP INIT-ACK, on mismatch between SCTP AUTH availability. This might be exploited remotely for a denial of service (crash) attack.

CVE-2008-3833: The generic_file_splice_write function in fs/splice.c in the Linux kernel does not properly strip setuid and setgid bits when there is a write to a file, which allows local users to gain the privileges of a different group, and obtain sensitive information or possibly have unspecified other impact, by splicing into an inode in order to create an executable file in a setgid directory.

CVE-2008-4210: fs/open.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.22 does not properly strip setuid and setgid bits when there is a write to a file, which allows local users to gain the privileges of a different group, and obtain sensitive information or possibly have unspecified other impact, by creating an executable file in a setgid directory through the (1) truncate or (2) ftruncate function in conjunction with memory-mapped I/O.

CVE-2008-4302: fs/splice.c in the splice subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.22.2 does not properly handle a failure of the add_to_page_cache_lru function, and subsequently attempts to unlock a page that was not locked, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (kernel BUG and system crash), as demonstrated by the fio I/O tool.

CVE-2008-3528: The ext[234] filesystem code fails to properly handle corrupted data structures. With a mounted filesystem image or partition that have corrupted dir->i_size and dir->i_blocks, a user performing either a read or write operation on the mounted image or partition can lead to a possible denial of service by spamming the logfile.

CVE-2007-6716: fs/direct-io.c in the dio subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly zero out the dio struct, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (OOPS), as demonstrated by a certain fio test.

CVE-2008-3525: Added missing capability checks in sbni_ioctl().

CVE-2008-3272: Fixed range checking in the snd_seq OSS ioctl, which could be used to leak information from the kernel.

CVE-2008-2931: The do_change_type function in fs/namespace.c did not verify that the caller has the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability, which allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service by modifying the properties of a mountpoint.

CVE-2008-2812: Various NULL ptr checks have been added to tty op functions, which might have been used by local attackers to execute code. We think that this affects only devices openable by root, so the impact is limited.

CVE-2008-1673: Added range checking in ASN.1 handling for the CIFS and SNMP NAT netfilter modules.

CVE-2008-3527: arch/i386/kernel/sysenter.c in the Virtual Dynamic Shared Objects (vDSO) implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.21 did not properly check boundaries, which allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service via unspecified vectors, related to the install_special_mapping, syscall, and syscall32_nopage functions.

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 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.

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&reg;.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2008-0957 advisory.

    - [i386] vDSO: use install_special_mapping (Peter Zijlstra ) [460275 460276] {CVE-2008-3527}
    - [fs] remove SUID when splicing into an inode (Eric Sandeen ) [464451 464452] {CVE-2008-3833}
    - [fs] open() allows setgid bit when user is not in group (Eugene Teo ) [463867 463687] {CVE-2008-4210}
    - [xen] allow guests to hide the TSC from applications (Chris Lalancette ) [378471 378481] {CVE-2007-5907}
    - [x86_64] xen: local DOS due to NT bit leakage (Eugene Teo ) [457721 457722] {CVE-2006-5755}
    - [net] dccp_setsockopt_change integer overflow (Vitaly Mayatskikh ) [459232 459235] {CVE-2008-3276}
    - [mm] optimize ZERO_PAGE in 'get_user_pages' and fix XIP (Anton Arapov ) [452667 452668] {CVE-2008-2372}

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.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2008:0972 :

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

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.

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Direct-IO implementation.
This could have allowed a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6716, Important)

* when running ptrace in 31-bit mode on an IBM S/390 or IBM System z kernel, a local unprivileged user could cause a denial of service by reading from or writing into a padding area in the user_regs_struct32 structure. (CVE-2008-1514, Important)

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

* Tobias Klein reported a missing check in the Linux kernel's Open Sound System (OSS) implementation. This deficiency could have led to an information leak. (CVE-2008-3272, Moderate)

* a potential denial of service attack was discovered in the Linux kernel's PWC USB video driver. A local unprivileged user could have used this flaw to bring the kernel USB subsystem into the busy-waiting state. (CVE-2007-5093, Low)

* the ext2 and ext3 file systems code failed to properly handle corrupted data structures, leading to a possible local denial of service issue when read or write operations were performed.
(CVE-2008-3528, Low)

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs :

* when using the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option, appending to an open file on a CIFS share resulted in that file being overwritten with the data to be appended.

* a kernel panic occurred when a device with PCI ID 8086:10c8 was present on a system with a loaded ixgbe driver.

* due to an aacraid driver regression, the kernel failed to boot when trying to load the aacraid driver and printed the following error message: 'aac_srb: aac_fib_send failed with status: 8195'.

* due to an mpt driver regression, when RAID 1 was configured on Primergy systems with an LSI SCSI IME 53C1020/1030 controller, the kernel panicked during boot.

* the mpt driver produced a large number of extraneous debugging messages when performing a 'Host reset' operation.

* due to a regression in the sym driver, the kernel panicked when a SCSI hot swap was performed using MCP18 hardware.

* all cores on a multi-core system now scale their frequencies in accordance with the policy set by the system's CPU frequency governor.

* the netdump subsystem suffered from several stability issues. These are addressed in this updated kernel.

* under certain conditions, the ext3 file system reported a negative count of used blocks.

* reading /proc/self/mem incorrectly returned 'Invalid argument' instead of 'input/output error' due to a regression.

* under certain conditions, the kernel panicked when a USB device was removed while the system was busy accessing the device.

* a race condition in the kernel could have led to a kernel crash during the creation of a new process.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Users 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.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
34755	openSUSE 10 Security Update : kernel (kernel-5751)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	11/12/2008	1/14/2021	critical
35190	RHEL 3 : kernel (RHSA-2008:0973)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	12/17/2008	1/14/2021	high
43713	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2008:0957)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	1/6/2010	1/4/2021	high
60507	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL3.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/1/2012	1/14/2021	high
67758	Oracle Linux 5 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0957)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	2/9/2026	medium
67762	Oracle Linux 4 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0972)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	8/24/2021	medium
67763	Oracle Linux 3 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0973)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	8/24/2021	high

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