| Description: | The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.
Security fixes:
the possibility of a timeout value overflow was found in the Linux kernel high-resolution timers functionality, hrtimers. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to execute arbitrary code, or cause a denial of service (kernel panic). (CVE-2007-5966, Important)
a flaw was found in the Intel PRO/1000 network driver in the Linux kernel. Frames with sizes near the MTU of an interface may be split across multiple hardware receive descriptors. Receipt of such a frame could leak through a validation check, leading to a corruption of the length check. A remote attacker could use this flaw to send a specially-crafted packet that would cause a denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1385, Important)
Michael Tokarev reported a flaw in the Realtek r8169 Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel. This driver allowed interfaces using this driver to receive frames larger than could be handled, which could lead to a remote denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1389, Important)
the ADDR_COMPAT_LAYOUT and MMAP_PAGE_ZERO flags were not cleared when a setuid or setgid program was executed. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to bypass the mmap_min_addr protection mechanism and perform a NULL pointer dereference attack, or bypass the Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security feature. (CVE-2009-1895, Important)
Ramon de Carvalho Valle reported two flaws in the Linux kernel eCryptfs implementation. A local attacker with permissions to perform an eCryptfs mount could modify the metadata of the files in that eCrypfts mount to cause a buffer overflow, leading to a denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-2406, CVE-2009-2407, Important)
Konstantin Khlebnikov discovered a race condition in the ptrace implementation in the Linux kernel. This race condition can occur when the process tracing and the process being traced participate in a core dump. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a deadlock, resulting in a partial denial of service. (CVE-2009-1388, Moderate)
Bug fixes (see References below for a link to more detailed notes):
possible dom0 crash when a Xen para-virtualized guest was installed while another para-virtualized guest was rebooting. (BZ#497812)
no directory removal audit record if the directory and its subtree were recursively watched by an audit rule. (BZ#507561)
running "echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" under high memory load could cause a kernel panic. (BZ#503692)
on 32-bit systems, core dumps for some multithreaded applications did not include all thread information. (BZ#505322)
a stack buffer used by get_event_name() was too small for nul terminator sprintf() writes. This could lead to an invalid pointer or kernel panic. (BZ#506906)
when using the aic94xx driver, systems with SATA drives may not boot due to a libsas bug. (BZ#506029)
Wacom Cintiq 21UX and Intuos stylus buttons were handled incorrectly when moved away from and back to these tablets. (BZ#508275)
CPU "soft lockup" messages and possibe system hangs on systems with certain Broadcom network devices and running the Linux kernel from the kernel-xen package. (BZ#503689)
on 64-bit PowerPC, getitimer() failed for programs using the ITIMER_REAL timer that were also compiled for 64-bit systems. This caused such programs to abort. (BZ#510018)
write operations could be blocked even when using O_NONBLOCK. (BZ#510239)
the "pci=nomsi" option was required for installing and booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 on systems with VIA VT3364 chipsets. (BZ#507529)
shutting down, destroying, or migrating Xen guests with large amounts of memory could cause other guests to be temporarily unresponsive. (BZ#512311)
Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. Systems must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
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