Issued:

2007-11-29

Updated:

2007-11-29

RHSA-2007:0993 - Important: kernel security update

Synopsis

Important: kernel security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Important

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix various security issues in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel are now available.

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

Description

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

These new kernel packages contain fixes for the following security issues:

A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames affecting several wireless LAN modules. In certain circumstances, a remote attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless network and cause a denial of service (kernel crash). (CVE-2007-4997, Important).

A flaw was found in the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). A local user who had the ability to read the /proc/driver/snd-page-alloc file could see portions of kernel memory. (CVE-2007-4571, Moderate).

In addition to the security issues described above, several bug fixes preventing possible memory corruption, system crashes, SCSI I/O fails, networking drivers performance regression and journaling block device layer issue were also included.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users are advised to upgrade to these packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

Red Hat would like to credit Vasily Averin, Chris Evans, and Neil Kettle for reporting the security issues corrected by this update.

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 This content is not included.http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Affected Products

Updated Packages

• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.src.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-PAE-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i386.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-doc-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.noarch.rpm
• kernel-kdump-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 288961
• This content is not included.BZ - 305011
• This content is not included.BZ - 315051
• This content is not included.BZ - 345141
• This content is not included.BZ - 345151
• This content is not included.BZ - 345161
• This content is not included.BZ - 345171
• This content is not included.BZ - 346341
• This content is not included.BZ - 381001
• This content is not included.BZ - 381021
• This content is not included.BZ - 381101
• This content is not included.BZ - 381121
• This content is not included.BZ - 381131

CVEs

• CVE-2007-4571
• CVE-2007-4997
• CVE-2007-5494

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important

Additional information

• The Red Hat security contact is This content is not included.secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.
• Offline Security Data data is available for integration with other systems. See Offline Security Data API to get started.