Issued:

2008-06-25

Updated:

2008-06-25

RHSA-2008:0508 - 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 several security issues and a bug are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

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:

• A security flaw was found in the Linux kernel memory copy routines, when running on certain AMD64 systems. If an unsuccessful attempt to copy kernel memory from source to destination memory locations occurred, the copy routines did not zero the content at the destination memory location. This could allow a local unprivileged user to view potentially sensitive data. (CVE-2008-2729, Important)

• Alexey Dobriyan discovered a race condition in the Linux kernel process-tracing system call, ptrace. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (kernel hang). (CVE-2008-2365, Important)

• Tavis Ormandy discovered a deficiency in the Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation. This could allow a local unprivileged user to prepare and run a specially crafted binary, which would use this deficiency to leak uninitialized and potentially sensitive data. (CVE-2008-0598, Important)

• It was discovered that the Linux kernel handled string operations in the opposite way to the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause memory corruption. (CVE-2008-1367, Low)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bug:

• On systems with a large number of CPUs (more than 16), multiple applications calling the "times()" system call may have caused a system hang.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 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-doc-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.noarch.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-smp-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ppc64iseries.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-hugemem-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-smp-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.s390x.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ppc64iseries.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-xenU-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.s390x.rpm
• kernel-xenU-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xenU-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-hugemem-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-xenU-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-smp-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-smp-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.s390.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.s390.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-67.0.20.EL.src.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 433938
• This content is not included.BZ - 437312
• This content is not included.BZ - 449101
• This content is not included.BZ - 449359
• This content is not included.BZ - 451271

CVEs

• CVE-2008-1367
• CVE-2008-2729
• CVE-2008-2365
• CVE-2008-0598

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.