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.

Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel that may lead to a denial of service or privilege escalation. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems :

  - CVE-2007-6716     Joe Jin reported a local denial of service vulnerability     that allows system users to trigger an oops due to an     improperly initialized data structure.

  - CVE-2008-1514     Jan Kratochvil reported a local denial of service     vulnerability in the ptrace interface for the s390     architecture. Local users can trigger an invalid pointer     dereference, leading to a system panic.

  - CVE-2008-3276     Eugene Teo reported an integer overflow in the DCCP     subsystem that may allow remote attackers to cause a     denial of service in the form of a kernel panic.

  - CVE-2008-3525     Eugene Teo reported a lack of capability checks in the     kernel driver for Granch SBNI12 leased line adapters     (sbni), allowing local users to perform privileged     operations.

  - CVE-2008-3833     The S_ISUID/S_ISGID bits were not being cleared during     an inode splice, which, under certain conditions, can be     exploited by local users to obtain the privileges of a     group for which they are not a member. Mark Fasheh     reported this issue.

  - CVE-2008-4210     David Watson reported an issue in the open()/creat()     system calls which, under certain conditions, can be     exploited by local users to obtain the privileges of a     group for which they are not a member.

  - CVE-2008-4302     A coding error in the splice subsystem allows local     users to attempt to unlock a page structure that has not     been locked, resulting in a system crash.

The remote VMware ESX / ESXi host is missing a security-related patch.
It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities, including remote code execution vulnerabilities, in the following components :

  - ISC DHCP dhclient
  - Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem
  - Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
  - Java SE Development Kit (JDK)
  - Java SE Web Start
  - Linux kernel
  - Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation
  - Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition INET6
  - Linux kernel tty
  - Linux kernel virtual file system (VFS)
  - Red Hat dhcpd init script for DHCP
  - SBNI WAN driver

- 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.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2008:0972 advisory.

  - kernel PWC driver DoS (CVE-2007-5093)

  - kernel: dio: zero struct dio with kzalloc instead of manually (CVE-2007-6716)

  - kernel: ptrace: Padding area write - unprivileged kernel crash (CVE-2008-1514)

  - kernel snd_seq_oss_synth_make_info leak (CVE-2008-3272)

  - Linux kernel ext[234] directory corruption denial of service (CVE-2008-3528)

  - kernel: open() call allows setgid bit when user is not in new file's group (CVE-2008-4210)

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 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.

This kernel update for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 2 fixes various bugs and some security problems :

  - When creating a file, open()/creat() allowed the setgid     bit to be set via the mode argument even when, due to     the bsdgroups mount option or the file being created in     a setgid directory, the new file's group is one which     the user is not a member of. The local attacker could     then use ftruncate() and memory-mapped I/O to turn the     new file into an arbitrary binary and thus gain the     privileges of this group, since these operations do not     clear the setgid bit.'. (CVE-2008-4210)

  - 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-2008-3528)

  - The S/390 ptrace code allowed local users to cause a     denial of service (kernel panic) via the     user-area-padding test from the ptrace testsuite in     31-bit mode, which triggers an invalid dereference.
    (CVE-2008-1514)

  - 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-2007-6716)

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

Also OCFS2 was updated to version v1.4.1-1.

The full amount of changes can be reviewed in the RPM changelog.

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
34392	Debian DSA-1653-1 : linux-2.6 - denial of service/privilege escalation	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	10/14/2008	1/4/2021	high
89116	VMware ESX / ESXi Multiple Vulnerabilities (VMSA-2009-0014) (remote check)	Nessus	Misc.	3/3/2016	1/6/2021	critical
60497	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL4.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/1/2012	1/14/2021	medium
34841	RHEL 4 : kernel (RHSA-2008:0972)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	11/21/2008	4/21/2024	medium
35186	CentOS 3 : kernel (CESA-2008:0973)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	12/17/2008	1/4/2021	high
41535	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux kernel (ZYPP Patch Number 5668)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	9/24/2009	1/14/2021	high

Detections

Analytics

Plugins Search

critical

high

critical

medium

medium

high

high