Issued:

2009-08-24

Updated:

2009-08-24

RHSA-2009:1223 - Important: kernel security update

Synopsis

Important: kernel security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Important

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix two security issues 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 flaw was found in the SOCKOPS_WRAP macro in the Linux kernel. This macro did not initialize the sendpage operation in the proto_ops structure correctly. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a local denial of service or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2009-2692, Important)

• a flaw was found in the udp_sendmsg() implementation in the Linux kernel when using the MSG_MORE flag on UDP sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a local denial of service or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2009-2698, Important)

Red Hat would like to thank Tavis Ormandy and Julien Tinnes of the Google Security Team for responsibly reporting these flaws.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

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/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

Updated Packages

• kernel-smp-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.s390x.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.src.rpm
• kernel-smp-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ia64.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xenU-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-xenU-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ppc64iseries.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.s390.rpm
• kernel-doc-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.noarch.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.s390.rpm
• kernel-xenU-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-xenU-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ppc64iseries.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-hugemem-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-largesmp-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-hugemem-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-smp-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-smp-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.i686.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.9-89.0.9.EL.s390x.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 516949
• This content is not included.BZ - 518034

CVEs

• CVE-2009-2698
• CVE-2009-2692

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.