7.2 - RHSA-2008:0519

Problem Description:

Updated kernel packages that fix various security issues and a bug are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) - i386, noarch, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, noarch, ppc, s390x, x86_64

3. Description:

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

These updated packages fix the following security issues:

* A security flaw was found in the Linux kernel memory copy routines, when running on certain AMD64 systems. If an unsuccessful attempt to copy kernel memory from source to destination memory locations occurred, the copy routines did not zero the content at the destination memory location. This could allow a local unprivileged user to view potentially sensitive data. (CVE-2008-2729, Important)

* Tavis Ormandy discovered a deficiency in the Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation. This could allow a local unprivileged user to prepare and run a specially crafted binary, which would use this deficiency to leak uninitialized and potentially sensitive data. (CVE-2008-0598, Important)

* Brandon Edwards discovered a missing length validation check in the Linux kernel DCCP module reconciliation feature. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a heap overflow, gaining privileges for arbitrary code execution. (CVE-2008-2358, Moderate)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bug:

* Due to a regression, "gettimeofday" may have gone backwards on certain x86 hardware. This issue was quite dangerous for time-sensitive systems, such as those used for transaction systems and databases, and may have caused applications to produce incorrect results, or even crash.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 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/):

433938 - CVE-2008-0598 kernel: linux x86_64 ia32 emulation leaks uninitialized data 447389 - CVE-2008-2358 kernel: dccp: sanity check feature length 451271 - CVE-2008-2729 kernel: [x86_64] The string instruction version didn't zero the output on exception.