Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues, address several hundred bugs, and add numerous enhancements are now available as part of the ongoing support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6. This is the fourth regular update.

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 fixes the following security issues :

* A race condition was found in the way asynchronous I/O and fallocate() interacted when using the ext4 file system. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to expose random data from an extent whose data blocks have not yet been written, and thus contain data from a deleted file. (CVE-2012-4508, Important)

* A flaw was found in the way the vhost kernel module handled descriptors that spanned multiple regions. A privileged guest user in a KVM guest could use this flaw to crash the host or, potentially, escalate their privileges on the host. (CVE-2013-0311, Important)

* It was found that the default SCSI command filter does not accommodate commands that overlap across device classes. A privileged guest user could potentially use this flaw to write arbitrary data to a LUN that is passed-through as read-only. (CVE-2012-4542, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the way the xen_failsafe_callback() function in the Linux kernel handled the failed iret (interrupt return) instruction notification from the Xen hypervisor. An unprivileged user in a 32-bit para-virtualized guest could use this flaw to crash the guest. (CVE-2013-0190, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the way pmd_present() interacted with PROT_NONE memory ranges when transparent hugepages were in use. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system.
(CVE-2013-0309, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the way CIPSO (Common IP Security Option) IP options were validated when set from user mode. A local user able to set CIPSO IP options on the socket could use this flaw to crash the system. (CVE-2013-0310, Moderate)

Red Hat would like to thank Theodore Ts'o for reporting CVE-2012-4508, and Andrew Cooper of Citrix for reporting CVE-2013-0190. Upstream acknowledges Dmitry Monakhov as the original reporter of CVE-2012-4508. The CVE-2012-4542 issue was discovered by Paolo Bonzini of Red Hat.

This update also fixes several hundred bugs and adds enhancements.
Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 Release Notes for information on the most significant of these changes, and the Technical Notes for further information, both linked to in the References.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 users are advised to install these updated packages, which correct these issues, and fix the bugs and add the enhancements noted in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 Release Notes and 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-2013-0496 advisory.

  - Race condition in fs/ext4/extents.c in the Linux kernel before 3.4.16 allows local users to obtain     sensitive information from a deleted file by reading an extent that was not properly marked as     uninitialized. (CVE-2012-4508)

  - The xen_failsafe_callback function in Xen for the Linux kernel 2.6.23 and other versions, when running a     32-bit PVOPS guest, allows local users to cause a denial of service (guest crash) by triggering an iret     fault, leading to use of an incorrect stack pointer and stack corruption. (CVE-2013-0190)

  - block/scsi_ioctl.c in the Linux kernel through 3.8 does not properly consider the SCSI device class during     authorization of SCSI commands, which allows local users to bypass intended access restrictions via an     SG_IO ioctl call that leverages overlapping opcodes. (CVE-2012-4542)

  - arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h in the Linux kernel before 3.6.2, when transparent huge pages are used,     does not properly support PROT_NONE memory regions, which allows local users to cause a denial of service     (system crash) via a crafted application. (CVE-2013-0309)

  - The cipso_v4_validate function in net/ipv4/cipso_ipv4.c in the Linux kernel before 3.4.8 allows local     users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly have     unspecified other impact via an IPOPT_CIPSO IP_OPTIONS setsockopt system call. (CVE-2013-0310)

  - The translate_desc function in drivers/vhost/vhost.c in the Linux kernel before 3.7 does not properly     handle cross-region descriptors, which allows guest OS users to obtain host OS privileges by leveraging     KVM guest OS privileges. (CVE-2013-0311)

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

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2013-0496.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
65134	CentOS 6 : kernel (CESA-2013:0496)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	3/10/2013	1/4/2021	medium
65171	RHEL 6 : kernel (RHSA-2013:0496)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	3/10/2013	1/14/2021	medium
68739	Oracle Linux 6 : Oracle / Linux / 6 / kernel (ELSA-2013-0496)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	9/8/2021	medium
83611	SUSE SLES11 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2014:0287-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	5/20/2015	1/19/2021	high
801535	CentOS RHSA-2013-0496 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic			high

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