| Description: | The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.
This update fixes the following security issues:
multiple flaws were found in the mmap and mremap implementations. A local user could use these flaws to cause a local denial of service or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2010-0291, Important)
a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the Fast Userspace Mutexes (futexes) implementation. The unlock code path did not check if the futex value associated with pi_state->owner had been modified. A local user could use this flaw to modify the futex value, possibly leading to a denial of service or privilege escalation when the pi_state->owner pointer is dereferenced. (CVE-2010-0622, Important)
a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the Linux kernel Network File System (NFS) implementation. A local user on a system that has an NFS-mounted file system could use this flaw to cause a denial of service or escalate their privileges on that system. (CVE-2010-1087, Important)
a flaw was found in the sctp_process_unk_param() function in the Linux kernel Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) implementation. A remote attacker could send a specially-crafted SCTP packet to an SCTP listening port on a target system, causing a kernel panic (denial of service). (CVE-2010-1173, Important)
a flaw was found in the Linux kernel Transparent Inter-Process Communication protocol (TIPC) implementation. If a client application, on a local system where the tipc module is not yet in network mode, attempted to send a message to a remote TIPC node, it would dereference a NULL pointer on the local system, causing a kernel panic (denial of service). (CVE-2010-1187, Important)
a buffer overflow flaw was found in the Linux kernel Global File System 2 (GFS2) implementation. In certain cases, a quota could be written past the end of a memory page, causing memory corruption, leaving the quota stored on disk in an invalid state. A user with write access to a GFS2 file system could trigger this flaw to cause a kernel crash (denial of service) or escalate their privileges on the GFS2 server. This issue can only be triggered if the GFS2 file system is mounted with the "quota=on" or "quota=account" mount option. (CVE-2010-1436, Important)
a race condition between finding a keyring by name and destroying a freed keyring was found in the Linux kernel key management facility. A local user could use this flaw to cause a kernel panic (denial of service) or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2010-1437, Important)
a flaw was found in the link_path_walk() function in the Linux kernel. Using the file descriptor returned by the open() function with the O_NOFOLLOW flag on a subordinate NFS-mounted file system, could result in a NULL pointer dereference, causing a denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2010-1088, Moderate)
a missing permission check was found in the gfs2_set_flags() function in the Linux kernel GFS2 implementation. A local user could use this flaw to change certain file attributes of files, on a GFS2 file system, that they do not own. (CVE-2010-1641, Low)
Red Hat would like to thank Jukka Taimisto and Olli Jarva of Codenomicon Ltd, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Wind River on behalf of their customer, for responsibly reporting CVE-2010-1173; Mario Mikocevic for responsibly reporting CVE-2010-1436; and Dan Rosenberg for responsibly reporting CVE-2010-1641.
This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will be available shortly from http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/errata/RHSA-2010-0504/Kernel_Security_Update/index.html
Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
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