Issued:

2008-05-20

Updated:

2008-05-20

RHSA-2008:0275 - Important: kernel security and bug fix update

Synopsis

Important: kernel security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Important

Topic

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

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

Description

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

These updated packages fix the following security issues:

• on AMD64 architectures, the possibility of a kernel crash was discovered by testing the Linux kernel process-trace ability. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service (kernel crash). (CVE-2008-1615, Important)

• on 64-bit architectures, the possibility of a timer-expiration value overflow was found in the Linux kernel high-resolution timers functionality, hrtimer. This could allow a local unprivileged user to setup a large interval value, forcing the timer expiry value to become negative, causing a denial of service (kernel hang). (CVE-2007-6712, Important)

• the possibility of a kernel crash was found in the Linux kernel IPsec protocol implementation, due to improper handling of fragmented ESP packets. When an attacker controlling an intermediate router fragmented these packets into very small pieces, it would cause a kernel crash on the receiving node during packet reassembly. (CVE-2007-6282, Important)

• a potential denial of service attack was discovered in the Linux kernel PWC USB video driver. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to bring the kernel USB subsystem into the busy-waiting state, causing a denial of service. (CVE-2007-5093, Low)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bugs:

• in certain situations, a kernel hang and a possible panic occurred when disabling the cpufreq daemon. This may have prevented system reboots from completing successfully.

• continual "softlockup" messages, which occurred on the guest's console after a successful save and restore of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 para-virtualized guest, have been resolved.

• in the previous kernel packages, the kernel may not have reclaimed NFS locks after a system reboot.

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

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-kdump-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-doc-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.noarch.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i386.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.src.rpm
• kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-PAE-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-53.1.21.el5.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 306591
• This content is not included.BZ - 400821
• This content is not included.BZ - 404291
• This content is not included.BZ - 429516
• This content is not included.BZ - 431430
• This content is not included.BZ - 439999
• This content is not included.BZ - 444402
• This content is not included.BZ - 445360

CVEs

• CVE-2007-6282
• CVE-2008-1615
• CVE-2007-6712
• CVE-2007-5093

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.