| Description: | The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.
This update fixes the following security issues:
It was found that a deadlock could occur in the Out of Memory (OOM) killer. A process could trigger this deadlock by consuming a large amount of memory, and then causing request_module() to be called. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (excessive memory consumption). (CVE-2012-4398, Moderate)
A flaw was found in the way the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) subsystem handled guests attempting to run with the X86_CR4_OSXSAVE CPU feature flag set. On hosts without the XSAVE CPU feature, a local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the host system. (The "grep --color xsave /proc/cpuinfo" command can be used to verify if your system has the XSAVE CPU feature.) (CVE-2012-4461, Moderate)
A memory disclosure flaw was found in the way the load_script() function in the binfmt_script binary format handler handled excessive recursions. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to leak kernel stack memory to user-space by executing specially-crafted scripts. (CVE-2012-4530, Low)
Red Hat would like to thank Tetsuo Handa for reporting CVE-2012-4398, and Jon Howell for reporting CVE-2012-4461.
This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these changes will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the References section.
Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
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