6.8 - RHSA-2008:0167

Problem Description:

Updated kernel packages that fix various security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 - i386, ia64, noarch, ppc, s390, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 - i386, noarch, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 - i386, ia64, noarch, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 - i386, ia64, noarch, x86_64

3. Description:

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

A buffer overflow flaw was found in the CIFS virtual file system. A remote authenticated user could issue a request that could lead to a denial of service. (CVE-2007-5904, Moderate)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bugs:

* a bug was found in the Linux kernel audit subsystem. When the audit daemon was setup to log the execve system call with a large number of arguments, the kernel could run out out memory while attempting to create audit log messages. This could cause a kernel panic. In these updated packages, large audit messages are split into acceptable sizes, which resolves this issue.

* on certain Intel chipsets, it was not possible to load the acpiphp module using the "modprobe acpiphp" command. Because the acpiphp module did not recurse across PCI bridges, hardware detection for PCI hot plug slots failed. In these updated packages, hardware detection works correctly.

* on IBM System z architectures that run the IBM z/VM hypervisor, the IBM eServer zSeries HiperSockets network interface (layer 3) allowed ARP packets to be sent and received, even when the "NOARP" flag was set. These ARP packets caused problems for virtual machines.

* it was possible for the iounmap function to sleep while holding a lock. This may have caused a deadlock for drivers and other code that uses the iounmap function. In these updated packages, the lock is dropped before the sleep code is called, which resolves this issue.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

5. Bugs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/):

372701 - CVE-2007-5904 Buffer overflow in CIFS VFS 427393 - audit: Logging execve arguments, out of memory in audit_expand 428174 - ACPIPHP.ko will not load : RHEL4.x and RHEL5.0 on X8450 (Intel 4 socket Quad Core) but will load on RHEL5.1 430670 - LTC39262-qeth: HiperSockets layer-3 interface to drop non-IP packets 433267 - [Stratus 4.6.z bug] iounmap may sleep while holding vmlist_lock, causing a deadlock.