7.8 - RHSA-2009:1193

Problem Description:

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues and several bugs 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.

Security fixes:

* the possibility of a timeout value overflow was found in the Linux kernel high-resolution timers functionality, hrtimers. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to execute arbitrary code, or cause a denial of service (kernel panic). (CVE-2007-5966, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Intel PRO/1000 network driver in the Linux kernel. Frames with sizes near the MTU of an interface may be split across multiple hardware receive descriptors. Receipt of such a frame could leak through a validation check, leading to a corruption of the length check. A remote attacker could use this flaw to send a specially-crafted packet that would cause a denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1385, Important)

* Michael Tokarev reported a flaw in the Realtek r8169 Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel. This driver allowed interfaces using this driver to receive frames larger than could be handled, which could lead to a remote denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1389, Important)

* the ADDR_COMPAT_LAYOUT and MMAP_PAGE_ZERO flags were not cleared when a setuid or setgid program was executed. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to bypass the mmap_min_addr protection mechanism and perform a NULL pointer dereference attack, or bypass the Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security feature. (CVE-2009-1895, Important)

* Ramon de Carvalho Valle reported two flaws in the Linux kernel eCryptfs implementation. A local attacker with permissions to perform an eCryptfs mount could modify the metadata of the files in that eCrypfts mount to cause a buffer overflow, leading to a denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-2406, CVE-2009-2407, Important)

* Konstantin Khlebnikov discovered a race condition in the ptrace implementation in the Linux kernel. This race condition can occur when the process tracing and the process being traced participate in a core dump. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a deadlock, resulting in a partial denial of service. (CVE-2009-1388, Moderate)

Bug fixes:

* possible host (dom0) crash when installing a Xen para-virtualized guest while another para-virtualized guest was rebooting. (BZ#497812)

* no audit record for a directory removal if the directory and its subtree were recursively watched by an audit rule. (BZ#507561)

* running "echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" on systems under high memory load could cause a kernel panic. (BZ#503692)

* on 32-bit systems, core dumps for some multithreaded applications did not include all thread information. (BZ#505322)

* a stack buffer used by get_event_name() was not large enough for the nul terminator sprintf() writes. This could lead to an invalid pointer or kernel panic. (BZ#506906)

* when using the aic94xx driver, a system with SATA drives may not boot due to a bug in libsas. (BZ#506029)

* incorrect stylus button handling when moving it away then returning it to the tablet for Wacom Cintiq 21UX and Intuos tablets. (BZ#508275)

* CPU "soft lockup" messages and possibly a system hang on systems with certain Broadcom network devices and running the Linux kernel from the kernel-xen package. (BZ#503689)

* on 64-bit PowerPC, getitimer() failed for programs using the ITIMER_REAL timer and that were also compiled for 64-bit systems (this caused such programs to abort). (BZ#510018)

* write operations could be blocked even when using O_NONBLOCK. (BZ#510239)

* the "pci=nomsi" option was required for installing and booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 on systems with VIA VT3364 chipsets. (BZ#507529)

* shutting down, destroying, or migrating Xen guests with large amounts of memory could cause other guests to be temporarily unresponsive. (BZ#512311)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

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/docs/DOC-11259

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

453135 - CVE-2007-5966 kernel: non-root can trigger cpu_idle soft lockup 497812 - RH5.3 x64 RC2 reboots while installing a virtual machine 502981 - CVE-2009-1385 kernel: e1000_clean_rx_irq() denial of service 503689 - Call trace thrown up when stressing the network with bw_tcp 503692 - Possible panic when drop_pagecache_sb() and prune_icache() run concurrently. 504263 - CVE-2009-1388 kernel: do_coredump() vs ptrace_start() deadlock 504726 - CVE-2009-1389 kernel: r8169: fix crash when large packets are received 505322 - [Reg][RHEL5.3] Multi-threaded application dumps a core with wrong thread information 506029 - With Red Hat errata 128.1.6 installed system hangs with SATA drives installed. 506906 - kernel: TPM: get_event_name stack corruption [rhel-5.3.z] 507529 - disable MSI on VIA VT3364 chipsets 507561 - Removal of directory doesn't produce audit record if rule is recursive 508275 - Wacom driver with Intuos tablet does not report button press after a proximity leave/re-enter 510018 - setitimer(ITIMER_REAL, ...) failing in 64bit enviroment 510239 - [5.3]Write operation with O_NONBLOCK flag to TTY terminal is blocked 511171 - CVE-2009-1895 kernel: personality: fix PER_CLEAR_ON_SETID 512311 - A Shut down of a 32GB domU's freezes other domU's for several seconds 512861 - CVE-2009-2406 kernel: ecryptfs stack overflow in parse_tag_11_packet() 512885 - CVE-2009-2407 kernel: ecryptfs heap overflow in parse_tag_3_packet()