6.9 - RHSA-2015:0284

Problem Description:

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 Extended Update Support.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Important security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Compute Node Optional EUS (v. 6.5) - x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node EUS (v. 6.5) - noarch, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server EUS (v. 6.5) - i386, noarch, ppc64, s390x, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional EUS (v. 6.5) - i386, ppc64, s390x, x86_64

3. Description:

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

* A race condition flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's KVM subsystem handled PIT (Programmable Interval Timer) emulation. A guest user who has access to the PIT I/O ports could use this flaw to crash the host. (CVE-2014-3611, Important)

* A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's SCTP implementation validated INIT chunks when performing Address Configuration Change (ASCONF). A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the system by sending a specially crafted SCTP packet to trigger a NULL pointer dereference on the system. (CVE-2014-7841, Important)

* A flaw was found in the way the ipc_rcu_putref() function in the Linux kernel's IPC implementation handled reference counter decrementing. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger an Out of Memory (OOM) condition and, potentially, crash the system. (CVE-2013-4483, Moderate)

* A memory corruption flaw was found in the way the USB ConnectTech WhiteHEAT serial driver processed completion commands sent via USB Request Blocks buffers. An attacker with physical access to the system could use this flaw to crash the system or, potentially, escalate their privileges on the system. (CVE-2014-3185, Moderate)

* It was found that the Linux kernel's KVM subsystem did not handle the VM exits gracefully for the invept (Invalidate Translations Derived from EPT) and invvpid (Invalidate Translations Based on VPID) instructions. On hosts with an Intel processor and invept/invppid VM exit support, an unprivileged guest user could use these instructions to crash the guest. (CVE-2014-3645, CVE-2014-3646, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's netfilter subsystem handled generic protocol tracking. As demonstrated in the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) case, a remote attacker could use this flaw to bypass intended iptables rule restrictions when the associated connection tracking module was not loaded on the system. (CVE-2014-8160, Moderate)

Red Hat would like to thank Lars Bull of Google for reporting CVE-2014-3611, Vladimir Davydov (Parallels) for reporting CVE-2013-4483, and the Advanced Threat Research team at Intel Security for reporting CVE-2014-3645 and CVE-2014-364