Issued:
2010-03-16
Updated:
2010-03-16

RHSA-2010:0147 - 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 multiple security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

Description

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

Security fixes:

  • a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the sctp_rcv_ootb() function in the Linux kernel Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) implementation. A remote attacker could send a specially-crafted SCTP packet to a target system, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2010-0008, Important)

  • a missing boundary check was found in the do_move_pages() function in the memory migration functionality in the Linux kernel. A local user could use this flaw to cause a local denial of service or an information leak. (CVE-2010-0415, Important)

  • a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the ip6_dst_lookup_tail() function in the Linux kernel. An attacker on the local network could trigger this flaw by sending IPv6 traffic to a target system, leading to a system crash (kernel OOPS) if dst->neighbour is NULL on the target system when receiving an IPv6 packet. (CVE-2010-0437, Important)

  • a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the ext4 file system code in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this flaw to trigger a local denial of service by mounting a specially-crafted, journal-less ext4 file system, if that file system forced an EROFS error. (CVE-2009-4308, Moderate)

  • an information leak was found in the print_fatal_signal() implementation in the Linux kernel. When "/proc/sys/kernel/print-fatal-signals" is set to 1 (the default value is 0), memory that is reachable by the kernel could be leaked to user-space. This issue could also result in a system crash. Note that this flaw only affected the i386 architecture. (CVE-2010-0003, Moderate)

  • missing capability checks were found in the ebtables implementation, used for creating an Ethernet bridge firewall. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to bypass intended capability restrictions and modify ebtables rules. (CVE-2010-0007, Low)

Bug fixes:

  • a bug prevented Wake on LAN (WoL) being enabled on certain Intel hardware. (BZ#543449)

  • a race issue in the Journaling Block Device. (BZ#553132)

  • programs compiled on x86, and that also call sched_rr_get_interval(), were silently corrupted when run on 64-bit systems. (BZ#557684)

  • the RHSA-2010:0019 update introduced a regression, preventing WoL from working for network devices using the e1000e driver. (BZ#559335)

  • adding a bonding interface in mode balance-alb to a bridge was not functional. (BZ#560588)

  • some KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) guests experienced slow performance (and possibly a crash) after suspend/resume. (BZ#560640)

  • on some systems, VF cannot be enabled in dom0. (BZ#560665)

  • on systems with certain network cards, a system crash occurred after enabling GRO. (BZ#561417)

  • for x86 KVM guests with pvclock enabled, the boot clocks were registered twice, possibly causing KVM to write data to a random memory area during the guest's life. (BZ#561454)

  • serious performance degradation for 32-bit applications, that map (mmap) thousands of small files, when run on a 64-bit system. (BZ#562746)

  • improved kexec/kdump handling. Previously, on some systems under heavy load, kexec/kdump was not functional. (BZ#562772)

  • dom0 was unable to boot when using the Xen hypervisor on a system with a large number of logical CPUs. (BZ#562777)

  • a fix for a bug that could potentially cause file system corruption. (BZ#564281)

  • a bug caused infrequent cluster issues for users of GFS2. (BZ#564288)

  • gfs2_delete_inode failed on read-only file systems. (BZ#564290)

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 all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the 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

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support5.4x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support5.4ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support5.4i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support5.4ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support5.4s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5i386

Updated Packages

  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-doc-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.noarch.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.src.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i386.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-PAE-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.15.1.el5.ia64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information