7.2 - RHSA-2015:0164

Problem Description:

Updated kernel packages that fix one security issue and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

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

3. Description:

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

* A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's splice() system call validated its parameters. On certain file systems, a local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to write past the maximum file size, and thus crash the system. (CVE-2014-7822, Moderate)

Red Hat would like to thank Akira Fujita of NEC for reporting this issue.

This update also fixes the following bugs:

* Previously, hot-unplugging of a virtio-blk device could in some cases lead to a kernel panic, for example during in-flight I/O requests. This update fixes race condition in the hot-unplug code in the virtio_blk.ko module. As a result, hot unplugging of the virtio-blk device no longer causes the guest kernel oops when there are in-flight I/O requests. (BZ#1006536)

* Before this update, due to a bug in the error-handling path, a corrupted metadata block could be used as a valid block. With this update, the error handling path has been fixed and more checks have been added to verify the metadata block. Now, when a corrupted metadata block is encountered, it is properly marked as corrupted and handled accordingly. (BZ#1034403)

* Previously, an incorrectly initialized variable resulted in a random value being stored in the variable that holds the number of default ACLs, and is sent in the SET_PATH_INFO data structure. Consequently, the setfacl command could, under certain circumstances, fail with an "Invalid argument" error. With this update, the variable is correctly initialized to zero, thus fixing the bug. (BZ#1105625)

All kernel users are advised to 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 all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

To install kernel packages manually, use "rpm -ivh [package]". Do not use "rpm -Uvh" as that will remove the running kernel binaries from your system. You may use "rpm -e" to remove old kernels after determining that the new kernel functions properly on your system.

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

1163792 - CVE-2014-7822 kernel: splice: lack of generic write checks