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

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

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

This update fixes the following security issues :

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4249, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

* A missing initialization flaw was found in the ethtool_get_regs() function in the Linux kernel's ethtool IOCTL handler. A local user who has the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause an information leak. (CVE-2010-4655, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Vegard Nossum for reporting CVE-2010-4249, and Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2010-4655.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the References section.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

Dan Rosenberg discovered that multiple terminal ioctls did not correctly initialize structure memory. A local attacker could exploit this to read portions of kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2010-4076, CVE-2010-4077)

Alex Shi and Eric Dumazet discovered that the network stack did not correctly handle packet backlogs. A remote attacker could exploit this by sending a large amount of network traffic to cause the system to run out of memory, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2010-4251, CVE-2010-4805)

It was discovered that the /proc filesystem did not correctly handle permission changes when programs executed. A local attacker could hold open files to examine details about programs running with higher privileges, potentially increasing the chances of exploiting additional vulnerabilities. (CVE-2011-1020)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the X.25 Rose network stack did not correctly handle certain fields. If a system was running with Rose enabled, a remote attacker could send specially crafted traffic to gain root privileges. (CVE-2011-1493)

Timo Warns discovered that the GUID partition parsing routines did not correctly validate certain structures. A local attacker with physical access could plug in a specially crafted block device to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1577)

It was discovered that CIFS incorrectly handled authentication. When a user had a CIFS share mounted that required authentication, a local user could mount the same share without knowing the correct password.
(CVE-2011-1585)

It was discovered that the GRE protocol incorrectly handled netns initialization. A remote attacker could send a packet while the ip_gre module was loading, and crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1767)

It was discovered that the IP/IP protocol incorrectly handled netns initialization. A remote attacker could send a packet while the ipip module was loading, and crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1768)

Ben Hutchings reported a flaw in the kernel's handling of corrupt LDM partitions. A local user could exploit this to cause a denial of service or escalate privileges. (CVE-2011-2182)

Andrea Righi discovered a race condition in the KSM memory merging support. If KSM was being used, a local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2183)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the IPv4 diagnostic routines did not correctly validate certain requests. A local attacker could exploit this to consume CPU resources, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2011-2213)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that taskstats listeners were not correctly handled. A local attacker could expoit this to exhaust memory and CPU resources, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2484)

It was discovered that Bluetooth l2cap and rfcomm did not correctly initialize structures. A local attacker could exploit this to read portions of the kernel stack, leading to a loss of privacy.
(CVE-2011-2492)

Mauro Carvalho Chehab discovered that the si4713 radio driver did not correctly check the length of memory copies. If this hardware was available, a local attacker could exploit this to crash the system or gain root privileges. (CVE-2011-2700)

Herbert Xu discovered that certain fields were incorrectly handled when Generic Receive Offload (CVE-2011-2723)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that the Comedi driver did not correctly clear memory. A local attacker could exploit this to read kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-2909)

The performance counter subsystem did not correctly handle certain counters. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2918)

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's /proc/*/*map* interface. A local, unprivileged user could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-3637)

Ben Hutchings discovered several flaws in the Linux Rose (X.25 PLP) layer. A local user or a remote user on an X.25 network could exploit these flaws to execute arbitrary code as root. (CVE-2011-4914).

Dan Rosenberg discovered that multiple terminal ioctls did not correctly initialize structure memory. A local attacker could exploit this to read portions of kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2010-4076, CVE-2010-4077)

Alex Shi and Eric Dumazet discovered that the network stack did not correctly handle packet backlogs. A remote attacker could exploit this by sending a large amount of network traffic to cause the system to run out of memory, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2010-4251, CVE-2010-4805)

It was discovered that the /proc filesystem did not correctly handle permission changes when programs executed. A local attacker could hold open files to examine details about programs running with higher privileges, potentially increasing the chances of exploiting additional vulnerabilities. (CVE-2011-1020)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the X.25 Rose network stack did not correctly handle certain fields. If a system was running with Rose enabled, a remote attacker could send specially crafted traffic to gain root privileges. (CVE-2011-1493)

Timo Warns discovered that the GUID partition parsing routines did not correctly validate certain structures. A local attacker with physical access could plug in a specially crafted block device to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1577)

It was discovered that CIFS incorrectly handled authentication. When a user had a CIFS share mounted that required authentication, a local user could mount the same share without knowing the correct password.
(CVE-2011-1585)

It was discovered that the GRE protocol incorrectly handled netns initialization. A remote attacker could send a packet while the ip_gre module was loading, and crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1767)

It was discovered that the IP/IP protocol incorrectly handled netns initialization. A remote attacker could send a packet while the ipip module was loading, and crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1768)

Ben Hutchings reported a flaw in the kernel's handling of corrupt LDM partitions. A local user could exploit this to cause a denial of service or escalate privileges. (CVE-2011-2182)

Andrea Righi discovered a race condition in the KSM memory merging support. If KSM was being used, a local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2183)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the IPv4 diagnostic routines did not correctly validate certain requests. A local attacker could exploit this to consume CPU resources, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2011-2213)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that taskstats listeners were not correctly handled. A local attacker could exploit this to exhaust memory and CPU resources, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2484)

It was discovered that Bluetooth l2cap and rfcomm did not correctly initialize structures. A local attacker could exploit this to read portions of the kernel stack, leading to a loss of privacy.
(CVE-2011-2492)

Mauro Carvalho Chehab discovered that the si4713 radio driver did not correctly check the length of memory copies. If this hardware was available, a local attacker could exploit this to crash the system or gain root privileges. (CVE-2011-2700)

Herbert Xu discovered that certain fields were incorrectly handled when Generic Receive Offload (CVE-2011-2723)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that the Comedi driver did not correctly clear memory. A local attacker could exploit this to read kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-2909)

The performance counter subsystem did not correctly handle certain counters. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2918)

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's /proc/*/*map* interface. A local, unprivileged user could exploit this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-3637)

Ben Hutchings discovered several flaws in the Linux Rose (X.25 PLP) layer. A local user or a remote user on an X.25 network could exploit these flaws to execute arbitrary code as root. (CVE-2011-4914).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the Linux kernel TIPC implementation contained multiple integer signedness errors. A local attacker could exploit this to gain root privileges. (CVE-2010-3859)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that multiple terminal ioctls did not correctly initialize structure memory. A local attacker could exploit this to read portions of kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2010-4075, CVE-2010-4076, CVE-2010-4077)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the socket filters did not correctly initialize structure memory. A local attacker could create malicious filters to read portions of kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2010-4158)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the Linux kernel L2TP implementation contained multiple integer signedness errors. A local attacker could exploit this to to crash the kernel, or possibly gain root privileges. (CVE-2010-4160)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that certain iovec operations did not calculate page counts correctly. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2010-4162)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the SCSI subsystem did not correctly validate iov segments. A local attacker with access to a SCSI device could send specially crafted requests to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2010-4163, CVE-2010-4668)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the RDS protocol did not correctly check ioctl arguments. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2010-4175)

Alan Cox discovered that the HCI UART driver did not correctly check if a write operation was available. If the mmap_min-addr sysctl was changed from the Ubuntu default to a value of 0, a local attacker could exploit this flaw to gain root privileges. (CVE-2010-4242)

Brad Spengler discovered that the kernel did not correctly account for userspace memory allocations during exec() calls. A local attacker could exploit this to consume all system memory, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2010-4243)

Alex Shi and Eric Dumazet discovered that the network stack did not correctly handle packet backlogs. A remote attacker could exploit this by sending a large amount of network traffic to cause the system to run out of memory, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2010-4251, CVE-2010-4805)

It was discovered that the ICMP stack did not correctly handle certain unreachable messages. If a remote attacker were able to acquire a socket lock, they could send specially crafted traffic that would crash the system, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2010-4526)

Dan Carpenter discovered that the Infiniband driver did not correctly handle certain requests. A local user could exploit this to crash the system or potentially gain root privileges. (CVE-2010-4649, CVE-2011-1044)

Kees Cook reported that /proc/pid/stat did not correctly filter certain memory locations. A local attacker could determine the memory layout of processes in an attempt to increase the chances of a successful memory corruption exploit. (CVE-2011-0726)

Timo Warns discovered that MAC partition parsing routines did not correctly calculate block counts. A local attacker with physical access could plug in a specially crafted block device to crash the system or potentially gain root privileges. (CVE-2011-1010)

Timo Warns discovered that LDM partition parsing routines did not correctly calculate block counts. A local attacker with physical access could plug in a specially crafted block device to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1012)

Matthiew Herrb discovered that the drm modeset interface did not correctly handle a signed comparison. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system or possibly gain root privileges.
(CVE-2011-1013)

It was discovered that the /proc filesystem did not correctly handle permission changes when programs executed. A local attacker could hold open files to examine details about programs running with higher privileges, potentially increasing the chances of exploiting additional vulnerabilities. (CVE-2011-1020)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that the Bluetooth stack did not correctly clear memory. A local attacker could exploit this to read kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-1078)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that the Bluetooth stack did not correctly check that device name strings were NULL terminated. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service, or leak contents of kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-1079)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that bridge network filtering did not check that name fields were NULL terminated. A local attacker could exploit this to leak contents of kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-1080)

Nelson Elhage discovered that the epoll subsystem did not correctly handle certain structures. A local attacker could create malicious requests that would hang the system, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2011-1082)

Neil Horman discovered that NFSv4 did not correctly handle certain orders of operation with ACL data. A remote attacker with access to an NFSv4 mount could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1090)

Johan Hovold discovered that the DCCP network stack did not correctly handle certain packet combinations. A remote attacker could send specially crafted network traffic that would crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1093)

Peter Huewe discovered that the TPM device did not correctly initialize memory. A local attacker could exploit this to read kernel heap memory contents, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-1160)

Timo Warns discovered that OSF partition parsing routines did not correctly clear memory. A local attacker with physical access could plug in a specially crafted block device to read kernel memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-1163)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that the netfilter code did not check certain strings copied from userspace. A local attacker with netfilter access could exploit this to read kernel memory or crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1170, CVE-2011-1171, CVE-2011-1172, CVE-2011-2534)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that the Acorn Universal Networking driver did not correctly initialize memory. A remote attacker could send specially crafted traffic to read kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2011-1173)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the IRDA subsystem did not correctly check certain field sizes. If a system was using IRDA, a remote attacker could send specially crafted traffic to crash the system or gain root privileges. (CVE-2011-1180)

Ryan Sweat discovered that the GRO code did not correctly validate memory. In some configurations on systems using VLANs, a remote attacker could send specially crafted traffic to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1478)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the X.25 Rose network stack did not correctly handle certain fields. If a system was running with Rose enabled, a remote attacker could send specially crafted traffic to gain root privileges. (CVE-2011-1493)

Timo Warns discovered that the GUID partition parsing routines did not correctly validate certain structures. A local attacker with physical access could plug in a specially crafted block device to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1577)

Oliver Hartkopp and Dave Jones discovered that the CAN network driver did not correctly validate certain socket structures. If this driver was loaded, a local attacker could crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1598)

Dan Rosenberg discovered that the DCCP stack did not correctly handle certain packet structures. A remote attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1770)

Vasiliy Kulikov and Dan Rosenberg discovered that ecryptfs did not correctly check the origin of mount points. A local attacker could exploit this to trick the system into unmounting arbitrary mount points, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-1833)

Vasiliy Kulikov discovered that taskstats listeners were not correctly handled. A local attacker could expoit this to exhaust memory and CPU resources, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2011-2484)

It was discovered that Bluetooth l2cap and rfcomm did not correctly initialize structures. A local attacker could exploit this to read portions of the kernel stack, leading to a loss of privacy.
(CVE-2011-2492)

Fernando Gont discovered that the IPv6 stack used predictable fragment identification numbers. A remote attacker could exploit this to exhaust network resources, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2011-2699)

The performance counter subsystem did not correctly handle certain counters. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2918)

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2011:0303 :

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

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

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

This update fixes the following security issues :

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4249, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

* A missing initialization flaw was found in the ethtool_get_regs() function in the Linux kernel's ethtool IOCTL handler. A local user who has the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause an information leak. (CVE-2010-4655, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Vegard Nossum for reporting CVE-2010-4249, and Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2010-4655.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the References section.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

The remote Oracle Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2011-0542 advisory.

  - arch/x86/kvm/x86.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36.2 does not initialize certain structure members,     which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via read     operations on the /dev/kvm device. (CVE-2010-3881)

  - The socket implementation in net/core/sock.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does not properly manage a     backlog of received packets, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory     consumption) by sending a large amount of network traffic, as demonstrated by netperf UDP tests.
    (CVE-2010-4251)

  - The socket implementation in net/core/sock.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.35 does not properly manage a     backlog of received packets, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service by sending a large     amount of network traffic, related to the sk_add_backlog function and the sk_rmem_alloc socket field.
    NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2010-4251. (CVE-2010-4805)

  - mm/huge_memory.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38-rc5 does not prevent creation of a transparent huge     page (THP) during the existence of a temporary stack for an exec system call, which allows local users to     cause a denial of service (memory consumption) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted     application. (CVE-2011-0999)

  - Buffer overflow in the mac_partition function in fs/partitions/mac.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37.2     allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a     malformed Mac OS partition table. (CVE-2011-1010)

  - The Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38 does not properly handle     congestion map updates, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (BUG_ON and system crash)     via vectors involving (1) a loopback (aka loop) transmit operation or (2) an InfiniBand (aka ib) transmit     operation. (CVE-2011-1023)

  - fs/eventpoll.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38 places epoll file descriptors within other epoll data     structures without properly checking for (1) closed loops or (2) deep chains, which allows local users to     cause a denial of service (deadlock or stack memory consumption) via a crafted application that makes     epoll_create and epoll_ctl system calls. (CVE-2011-1082)

  - The __nfs4_proc_set_acl function in fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38 stores NFSv4 ACL     data in memory that is allocated by kmalloc but not properly freed, which allows local users to cause a     denial of service (panic) via a crafted attempt to set an ACL. (CVE-2011-1090)

  - The osf_partition function in fs/partitions/osf.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38 does not properly     handle an invalid number of partitions, which might allow local users to obtain potentially sensitive     information from kernel heap memory via vectors related to partition-table parsing. (CVE-2011-1163)

  - net/ipv4/netfilter/arp_tables.c in the IPv4 implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not     place the expected '\0' character at the end of string data in the values of certain structure members,     which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory by leveraging the     CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to issue a crafted request, and then reading the argument to the resulting     modprobe process. (CVE-2011-1170)

  - net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.c in the IPv4 implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not place     the expected '\0' character at the end of string data in the values of certain structure members, which     allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory by leveraging the     CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to issue a crafted request, and then reading the argument to the resulting     modprobe process. (CVE-2011-1171)

  - net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6_tables.c in the IPv6 implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not     place the expected '\0' character at the end of string data in the values of certain structure members,     which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory by leveraging the     CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to issue a crafted request, and then reading the argument to the resulting     modprobe process. (CVE-2011-1172)

  - Integer overflow in the _ctl_do_mpt_command function in drivers/scsi/mpt2sas/mpt2sas_ctl.c in the Linux     kernel 2.6.38 and earlier might allow local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (memory     corruption) via an ioctl call specifying a crafted value that triggers a heap-based buffer overflow.
    (CVE-2011-1494)

  - drivers/scsi/mpt2sas/mpt2sas_ctl.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.38 and earlier does not validate (1) length and     (2) offset values before performing memory copy operations, which might allow local users to gain     privileges, cause a denial of service (memory corruption), or obtain sensitive information from kernel     memory via a crafted ioctl call, related to the _ctl_do_mpt_command and _ctl_diag_read_buffer functions.
    (CVE-2011-1495)

  - The bond_select_queue function in drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39, when     a network device with a large number of receive queues is installed but the default tx_queues setting is     used, does not properly restrict queue indexes, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service     (BUG and system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact by sending network traffic.
    (CVE-2011-1581)

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

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2011:0542 advisory.

  - kvm: arch/x86/kvm/x86.c: reading uninitialized stack memory (CVE-2010-3881)

  - kernel: unlimited socket backlog DoS (CVE-2010-4251, CVE-2010-4805)

  - kernel: thp: prevent hugepages during args/env copying into the user stack (CVE-2011-0999)

  - kernel: fs/partitions: Validate map_count in Mac partition tables (CVE-2011-1010)

  - kernel: BUG_ON() in rds_send_xmit() (CVE-2011-1023)

  - kernel: potential kernel deadlock when creating circular epoll file structures (CVE-2011-1082)

  - kernel: nfs4: Ensure that ACL pages sent over NFS were not allocated from the slab (CVE-2011-1090)

  - kernel: fs/partitions: Corrupted OSF partition table infoleak (CVE-2011-1163)

  - kernel: ipv4: netfilter: arp_tables: fix infoleak to userspace (CVE-2011-1170)

  - kernel: ipv4: netfilter: ip_tables: fix infoleak to userspace (CVE-2011-1171)

  - kernel: ipv6: netfilter: ip6_tables: fix infoleak to userspace (CVE-2011-1172)

  - kernel: drivers/scsi/mpt2sas: prevent heap overflows (CVE-2011-1494, CVE-2011-1495)

  - kernel: bonding: Incorrect TX queue offset (CVE-2011-1581)

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 several security issues and three bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 Extended Update Support.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

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

This update includes backported fixes for security issues. These issues, except for CVE-2011-1182, only affected users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 Extended Update Support as they have already been addressed for users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 in the 6.1 update, RHSA-2011:0542.

Security fixes :

* Buffer overflow flaws were found in the Linux kernel's Management Module Support for Message Passing Technology (MPT) based controllers.
A local, unprivileged user could use these flaws to cause a denial of service, an information leak, or escalate their privileges.
(CVE-2011-1494, CVE-2011-1495, Important)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4251, CVE-2010-4805, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Transparent Huge Pages (THP) implementation. A local, unprivileged user could abuse this flaw to allow the user stack (when it is using huge pages) to grow and cause a denial of service. (CVE-2011-0999, Moderate)

* A flaw in the Linux kernel's Event Poll (epoll) implementation could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service.
(CVE-2011-1082, Moderate)

* An inconsistency was found in the interaction between the Linux kernel's method for allocating NFSv4 (Network File System version 4) ACL data and the method by which it was freed. This inconsistency led to a kernel panic which could be triggered by a local, unprivileged user with files owned by said user on an NFSv4 share. (CVE-2011-1090, Moderate)

* It was found that some structure padding and reserved fields in certain data structures in KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) were not initialized properly before being copied to user-space. A privileged host user with access to '/dev/kvm' could use this flaw to leak kernel stack memory to user-space. (CVE-2010-3881, Low)

* A missing validation check was found in the Linux kernel's mac_partition() implementation, used for supporting file systems created on Mac OS operating systems. A local attacker could use this flaw to cause a denial of service by mounting a disk that contains specially crafted partitions. (CVE-2011-1010, Low)

* A buffer overflow flaw in the DEC Alpha OSF partition implementation in the Linux kernel could allow a local attacker to cause an information leak by mounting a disk that contains specially crafted partition tables. (CVE-2011-1163, Low)

* Missing validations of null-terminated string data structure elements in the do_replace(), compat_do_replace(), do_ipt_get_ctl(), do_ip6t_get_ctl(), and do_arpt_get_ctl() functions could allow a local user who has the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to cause an information leak. (CVE-2011-1170, CVE-2011-1171, CVE-2011-1172, Low)

* A missing validation check was found in the Linux kernel's signals implementation. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to send signals via the sigqueueinfo system call, with the si_code set to SI_TKILL and with spoofed process and user IDs, to other processes.
Note: This flaw does not allow existing permission checks to be bypassed; signals can only be sent if your privileges allow you to already do so. (CVE-2011-1182, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Dan Rosenberg for reporting CVE-2011-1494 and CVE-2011-1495; Nelson Elhage for reporting CVE-2011-1082; Vasiliy Kulikov for reporting CVE-2010-3881, CVE-2011-1170, CVE-2011-1171, and CVE-2011-1172; Timo Warns for reporting CVE-2011-1010 and CVE-2011-1163; and Julien Tinnes of the Google Security Team for reporting CVE-2011-1182.

This update also fixes three bugs. Documentation for these changes will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the References section.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2011-0303.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
52488	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2011:0303)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	3/2/2011	1/14/2021	medium
56191	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS : linux-mvl-dove vulnerabilities (USN-1203-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	9/14/2011	5/19/2016	high
56343	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS : linux vulnerabilities (USN-1218-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	9/30/2011	9/19/2019	high
53422	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2011:0303)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	4/15/2011	1/4/2021	medium
56207	Ubuntu 10.10 : linux-mvl-dove vulnerabilities (USN-1208-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	9/15/2011	5/19/2016	high
56192	USN-1204-1 : linux-fsl-imx51 vulnerabilities	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	9/14/2011	1/14/2016	high
56305	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS : linux-ec2 vulnerabilities (USN-1216-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	9/27/2011	9/19/2019	high
68207	Oracle Linux 5 : kernel (ELSA-2011-0303)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	8/24/2021	medium
181049	Oracle Linux 6 : Oracle / Linux / 6.1 / kernel (ELSA-2011-0542)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	9/7/2023	9/7/2023	high
54590	RHEL 6 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 kernel (RHSA-2011:0542)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	5/20/2011	4/21/2024	high
63986	RHEL 6 : kernel (RHSA-2011:0883)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	1/24/2013	1/14/2021	high
801505	CentOS RHSA-2011-0303 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic			high

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