Oval Definition:oval:com.redhat.rhsa:def:20080957
Revision Date:2008-11-12Version:650
Title:RHSA-2008:0957: kernel security and bug fix update (Important)
Description:The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

  • the Xen implementation did not prevent applications running in a para-virtualized guest from modifying CR4 TSC. This could cause a local denial of service. (CVE-2007-5907, Important)

  • Tavis Ormandy reported missing boundary checks in the Virtual Dynamic Shared Objects (vDSO) implementation. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service or escalate privileges. (CVE-2008-3527, 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, CVE-2008-3833, Important)

  • a flaw was found in the Linux kernel splice implementation. This could cause a local denial of service when there is a certain failure in the add_to_page_cache_lru() function. (CVE-2008-4302, Important)

  • a flaw was found in the Linux kernel when running on AMD64 systems. During a context switch, EFLAGS were being neither saved nor restored. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2006-5755, Low)

  • a flaw was found in the Linux kernel virtual memory implementation. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2372, Low)

  • an integer overflow was discovered in the Linux kernel Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) implementation. This could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service. By default, remote DCCP is blocked by SELinux. (CVE-2008-3276, Low)

    In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs:

    random32() seeding has been improved.

    in a multi-core environment, a race between the QP async event-handler and the destro_qp() function could occur. This led to unpredictable results during invalid memory access, which could lead to a kernel crash.

    a format string was omitted in the call to the request_module() function.

    a stack overflow caused by an infinite recursion bug in the binfmt_misc kernel module was corrected.

    the ata_scsi_rbuf_get() and ata_scsi_rbuf_put() functions now check for scatterlist usage before calling kmap_atomic().

    a sentinel NUL byte was added to the device_write() function to ensure that lspace.name is NUL-terminated.

    in the character device driver, a range_is_allowed() check was added to the read_mem() and write_mem() functions. It was possible for an illegitimate application to bypass these checks, and access /dev/mem beyond the 1M limit by calling mmap_mem() instead. Also, the parameters of range_is_allowed() were changed to cleanly handle greater than 32-bits of physical address on 32-bit architectures.

    some of the newer Nehalem-based systems declare their CPU DSDT entries as type "Alias". During boot, this caused an "Error attaching device data" message to be logged.

    the evtchn event channel device lacked locks and memory barriers. This has led to xenstore becoming unresponsive on the Itanium® architecture.

    sending of gratuitous ARP packets in the Xen frontend network driver is now delayed until the backend signals that its carrier status has been processed by the stack.

    on forcedeth devices, whenever setting ethtool parameters for link speed, the device could stop receiving interrupts.

    the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option did not allow text to be appended to files.

    the gettimeofday() function returned a backwards time on Intel® 64.

    residual-count corrections during UNDERRUN handling were added to the qla2xxx driver.

    the fix for a small quirk was removed for certain Adaptec controllers for which it caused problems.

    the "xm trigger init" command caused a domain panic if a userland application was running on a guest on the Intel® 64 architecture.

    Users of kernel should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.
  • Family:unixClass:patch
    Status:Reference(s):CVE-2006-5755
    CVE-2007-5907
    CVE-2008-2372
    CVE-2008-3276
    CVE-2008-3527
    CVE-2008-3833
    CVE-2008-4210
    CVE-2008-4302
    RHSA-2008:0957
    RHSA-2008:0957-03
    RHSA-2008:0957-03
    Platform(s):Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
    Product(s):
    Definition Synopsis
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux must be installed
  • OR Package Information
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is installed
  • AND
  • kernel earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5 is currently running
  • OR kernel earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5 is set to boot up on next boot
  • AND
  • kernel is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-PAE is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-PAE is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-PAE-devel is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-PAE-devel is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-debug is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-debug is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-debug-devel is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-debug-devel is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-devel is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-devel is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-doc is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-doc is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-headers is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-headers is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-kdump is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-kdump is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-kdump-devel is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-kdump-devel is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-xen is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-xen is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • kernel-xen-devel is earlier than 0:2.6.18-92.1.18.el5
  • AND kernel-xen-devel is signed with Red Hat redhatrelease2 key
  • BACK