Issued:
2006-03-15
Updated:
2006-03-15

RHSA-2006:0144 - Updated kernel packages available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 7

Synopsis

Updated kernel packages available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 7

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Moderate

Topic

Updated kernel packages are now available as part of ongoing support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 3. This is the seventh regular update.

This security advisory has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

Description

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

This is the seventh regular kernel update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

New features introduced by this update include:

  • addition of the bnx2, dell_rbu, and megaraid_sas device drivers
  • support for multi-core, multi-threaded Intel Itanium processors
  • upgrade of the SATA subsystem to include ATAPI and SMART support
  • optional tuning via the new numa_memory_allocator, arp_announce, and printk_ratelimit sysctls

There were many bug fixes in various parts of the kernel. The ongoing effort to resolve these problems has resulted in a marked improvement in the reliability and scalability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

There were numerous driver updates and security fixes (elaborated below). Other key areas affected by fixes in this update include the networking subsystem, the VM subsystem, NPTL handling, autofs4, the USB subsystem, CPU enumeration, and 32-bit-exec-mode handling on 64-bit architectures.

The following device drivers have been upgraded to new versions:

aacraid -------- 1.1.5-2412 bnx2 ----------- 1.4.30 (new) dell_rbu ------- 2.1 (new) e1000 ---------- 6.1.16-k3 emulex --------- 7.3.3 fusion --------- 2.06.16.02 ipmi ----------- 35.11 megaraid2 ------ v2.10.10.1 megaraid_sas --- 00.00.02.00 (new) tg3 ------------ 3.43RH

The following security bugs were fixed in this update:

  • a flaw in gzip/zlib handling internal to the kernel that allowed a local user to cause a denial of service (crash) (CVE-2005-2458,low)

  • a flaw in ext3 EA/ACL handling of attribute sharing that allowed a local user to gain privileges (CVE-2005-2801, moderate)

  • a minor info leak with the get_thread_area() syscall that allowed a local user to view uninitialized kernel stack data (CVE-2005-3276, low)

Note: The kernel-unsupported package contains various drivers and modules that are unsupported and therefore might contain security problems that have not been addressed.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine architectures and configurations as listed in this erratum.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied. Use Red Hat Network to download and update your packages. To launch the Red Hat Update Agent, use the following command:

up2date

For information on how to install packages manually, refer to the following Web page for the System Administration or Customization guide specific to your system:

This content is not included.http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian3ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems3s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems3s390
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation3x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation3ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation3i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server3x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server3ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server3i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop3x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop3i386

Updated Packages

  • kernel-unsupported-2.4.21-40.EL.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-doc-2.4.21-40.EL.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-source-2.4.21-40.EL.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-2.4.21-40.EL.ia64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

(none)

Additional information