Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues and a bug 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.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

* A security flaw was found in the Linux kernel memory copy routines, when running on certain AMD64 systems. If an unsuccessful attempt to copy kernel memory from source to destination memory locations occurred, the copy routines did not zero the content at the destination memory location. This could allow a local unprivileged user to view potentially sensitive data. (CVE-2008-2729, Important)

* Alexey Dobriyan discovered a race condition in the Linux kernel process-tracing system call, ptrace. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (kernel hang).
(CVE-2008-2365, Important)

* 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)

* It was discovered that the Linux kernel handled string operations in the opposite way to the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause memory corruption.
(CVE-2008-1367, Low)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bug :

* On systems with a large number of CPUs (more than 16), multiple applications calling the 'times()' system call may have caused a system hang.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

Dirk Nehring discovered that the IPsec protocol stack did not correctly handle fragmented ESP packets. A remote attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2007-6282)

Johannes Bauer discovered that the 64bit kernel did not correctly handle hrtimer updates. A local attacker could request a large expiration value and cause the system to hang, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6712)

Tavis Ormandy discovered that the ia32 emulation under 64bit kernels did not fully clear uninitialized data. A local attacker could read private kernel memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2008-0598)

Jan Kratochvil discovered that PTRACE did not correctly handle certain calls when running under 64bit kernels. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2008-1615)

Wei Wang discovered that the ASN.1 decoding routines in CIFS and SNMP NAT did not correctly handle certain length values. Remote attackers could exploit this to execute arbitrary code or crash the system.
(CVE-2008-1673)

Paul Marks discovered that the SIT interfaces did not correctly manage allocated memory. A remote attacker could exploit this to fill all available memory, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136)

David Miller and Jan Lieskovsky discovered that the Sparc kernel did not correctly range-check memory regions allocated with mmap. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2137)

The sys_utimensat system call did not correctly check file permissions in certain situations. A local attacker could exploit this to modify the file times of arbitrary files which could lead to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2148)

Brandon Edwards discovered that the DCCP system in the kernel did not correctly check feature lengths. A remote attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2008-2358)

A race condition was discovered between ptrace and utrace in the kernel. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2365)

The copy_to_user routine in the kernel did not correctly clear memory destination addresses when running on 64bit kernels. A local attacker could exploit this to gain access to sensitive kernel memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2008-2729)

The PPP over L2TP routines in the kernel did not correctly handle certain messages. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted packet that could crash the system or execute arbitrary code.
(CVE-2008-2750)

Gabriel Campana discovered that SCTP routines did not correctly check for large addresses. A local user could exploit this to allocate all available memory, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2826).

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.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

  - A security flaw was found in the Linux kernel memory     copy routines, when running on certain AMD64 systems. If     an unsuccessful attempt to copy kernel memory from     source to destination memory locations occurred, the     copy routines did not zero the content at the     destination memory location. This could allow a local     unprivileged user to view potentially sensitive data.
    (CVE-2008-2729, Important)

  - Alexey Dobriyan discovered a race condition in the Linux     kernel process-tracing system call, ptrace. A local     unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial     of service (kernel hang). (CVE-2008-2365, Important)

  - 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)

  - It was discovered that the Linux kernel handled string     operations in the opposite way to the GNU Compiler     Collection (GCC). This could allow a local unprivileged     user to cause memory corruption. (CVE-2008-1367, Low)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bug :

  - On systems with a large number of CPUs (more than 16),     multiple applications calling the 'times()' system call     may have caused a system hang.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2008:0508 :

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues and a bug 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.

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

* A security flaw was found in the Linux kernel memory copy routines, when running on certain AMD64 systems. If an unsuccessful attempt to copy kernel memory from source to destination memory locations occurred, the copy routines did not zero the content at the destination memory location. This could allow a local unprivileged user to view potentially sensitive data. (CVE-2008-2729, Important)

* Alexey Dobriyan discovered a race condition in the Linux kernel process-tracing system call, ptrace. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (kernel hang).
(CVE-2008-2365, Important)

* 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)

* It was discovered that the Linux kernel handled string operations in the opposite way to the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause memory corruption.
(CVE-2008-1367, Low)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bug :

* On systems with a large number of CPUs (more than 16), multiple applications calling the 'times()' system call may have caused a system hang.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2008-0508.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
33376	RHEL 4 : kernel (RHSA-2008:0508)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	7/2/2008	1/14/2021	high
33365	CentOS 4 : kernel (CESA-2008:0508)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	7/2/2008	1/4/2021	high
33531	Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.04 / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : linux, linux-source-2.6.15/20/22 vulnerabilities (USN-625-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	7/17/2008	1/19/2021	critical
60429	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL4.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/1/2012	1/14/2021	high
67703	Oracle Linux 4 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0508)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	8/24/2021	high
801453	CentOS RHSA-2008-0508 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic			high

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