| Description: | The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.
This is the first regular kernel update for Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 3. It contains a new critical security fix, many other bug fixes, several device driver updates, and numerous performance and scalability enhancements.
On AMD64 systems, a fix was made to the eflags checking in 32-bit ptrace emulation that could have allowed local users to elevate their privileges. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-0001 to this issue.
Other bug fixes were made in the following kernel areas: VM, NPTL, IPC, kernel timer, ext3, NFS, netdump, SCSI, ACPI, several device drivers, and machine-dependent support for the x86_64, ppc64, and s390 architectures.
The VM subsystem was improved to better handle extreme loads and resource contention (such as might occur during heavy database application usage). This has resulted in a significantly reduced possibility of hangs, OOM kills, and low-mem exhaustion.
Several NPTL fixes were made to resolve POSIX compliance issues concerning process IDs and thread IDs. A section in the Release Notes elaborates on a related issue with file record locking in multi-threaded applications.
AMD64 kernels are now configured with NUMA support, S390 kernels now have CONFIG_BLK_STATS enabled, and DMA capability was restored in the IA64 agpgart driver.
The following drivers have been upgraded to new versions:
cmpci ------ 6.36 e100 ------- 2.3.30-k1 e1000 ------ 5.2.20-k1 ips -------- 6.10.52 megaraid --- v1.18k megaraid2 -- v2.00.9
All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine architectures and configurations as listed in this erratum.
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