7.8 - RHSA-2008:0607

Problem Description:

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

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 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.

These updated packages fix the following security issue:

* a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition (SIT) INET6 implementation. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136, Important)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bugs:

* a possible kernel hang on hugemem systems, due to a bug in NFS, which may have caused systems to become unresponsive, has been resolved.

* an inappropriate exit condition occurred in the architecture-specific "mmap()" realization, which fell into an infinite loop under certain conditions. On 64-bit systems, this issue may have manifested itself to users as a soft lockup, or process hangs.

* due to a bug in hardware initialization in the "ohci_hcd" kernel module, the kernel may have failed with a NULL pointer dereference. On 64-bit PowerPC systems, this may have caused booting to fail, and drop to xmon. On other platforms, a kernel oops occurred.

* due to insufficient locks in task termination code, a panic may have occurred in the "sys_times()" system call on SMP machines.

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/):

446031 - CVE-2008-2136 kernel: sit memory leak 450185 - [RHEL 4] cffimtgsaslx08 hung 450760 - Patch for bug 360281 "Odd behaviour in mmap" introduces regression 450865 - kernel failed to boot and dropped to xmon 455072 - kernel panic with kernel version 2.6.9-67.0.20.EL