4.6 - RHSA-2006:0574

Problem Description:

Updated kernel packages that fix a privilege escalation security issue in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel are now available.

This security advisory 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. Problem description:

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.

During security research, Red Hat discovered a behavioral flaw in core dump handling. A local user could create a program that would cause a core file to be dumped into a directory they would not normally have permissions to write to. This could lead to a denial of service (disk consumption), or allow the local user to gain root privileges. (CVE-2006-2451)

Prior to applying this update, users can remove the ability to escalate privileges using this flaw by configuring core files to dump to an absolute location. By default, core files are created in the working directory of the faulting application, but this can be overridden by specifying an absolute location for core files in /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern. To avoid a potential denial of service, a separate partition for the core files should be used.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine architectures and configurations as listed in this erratum.

4. Solution:

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. To use Red Hat Network, launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:

up2date

This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate RPMs being upgraded on your system.

5. Bug IDs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/):

195902 - CVE-2006-2451 Possible privilege escalation through prctl() and suid_dumpable