7.5 - DSA-047

The kernels used in Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 have been found to have multiple security problems. This is a list of problems based on the 2.2.19 release notes as found on http://www.linux.org.uk/ :

* binfmt_misc used user pages directly * the CPIA driver had an off-by-one error in the buffer code which made it possible for users to write into kernel memory * the CPUID and MSR drivers had a problem in the module unloading code which could case a system crash if they were set to automatically load and unload (please note that Debian does not automatically unload kernel modules) * There was a possible hang in the classifier code * The getsockopt and setsockopt system calls did not handle sign bits correctly which made a local DoS and other attacks possible * The sysctl system call did not handle sign bits correctly which allowed a user to write in kernel memory * ptrace/exec races that could give a local user extra privileges * possible abuse of a boundary case in the sockfilter code * SYSV shared memory code could overwrite recently freed memory which might cause problems * The packet length checks in the masquerading code were a bit lax (probably not exploitable) * Some x86 assembly bugs caused the wrong number of bytes to be copied. * A local user could deadlock the kernel due to bugs in the UDP port allocation.

All these problems are fixed in the 2.2.19 kernel, and it is highly recommend that you upgrade machines to this kernel.

Please note that kernel upgrades are not done automatically. You will have to explicitly tell the packaging system to install the right kernel for your system.

wget url will fetch the file for you dpkg -i file.deb will install the referenced file.

Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 alias potato