Issued:
2010-08-10
Updated:
2010-08-10

RHSA-2010:0610 - 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.

This update fixes the following security issues:

  • instances of unsafe sprintf() use were found in the Linux kernel Bluetooth implementation. Creating a large number of Bluetooth L2CAP, SCO, or RFCOMM sockets could result in arbitrary memory pages being overwritten. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a kernel panic (denial of service) or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2010-1084, Important)

  • a flaw was found in the Xen hypervisor implementation when using the Intel Itanium architecture, allowing guests to enter an unsupported state. An unprivileged guest user could trigger this flaw by setting the BE (Big Endian) bit of the Processor Status Register (PSR), leading to the guest crashing (denial of service). (CVE-2010-2070, Important)

  • a flaw was found in the CIFSSMBWrite() function in the Linux kernel Common Internet File System (CIFS) implementation. A remote attacker could send a specially-crafted SMB response packet to a target CIFS client, resulting in a kernel panic (denial of service). (CVE-2010-2248, Important)

  • buffer overflow flaws were found in the Linux kernel's implementation of the server-side External Data Representation (XDR) for the Network File System (NFS) version 4. An attacker on the local network could send a specially-crafted large compound request to the NFSv4 server, which could possibly result in a kernel panic (denial of service) or, potentially, code execution. (CVE-2010-2521, Important)

  • a flaw was found in the handling of the SWAPEXT IOCTL in the Linux kernel XFS file system implementation. A local user could use this flaw to read write-only files, that they do not own, on an XFS file system. This could lead to unintended information disclosure. (CVE-2010-2226, Moderate)

  • a flaw was found in the dns_resolver upcall used by CIFS. A local, unprivileged user could redirect a Microsoft Distributed File System link to another IP address, tricking the client into mounting the share from a server of the user's choosing. (CVE-2010-2524, Moderate)

  • a missing check was found in the mext_check_arguments() function in the ext4 file system code. A local user could use this flaw to cause the MOVE_EXT IOCTL to overwrite the contents of an append-only file on an ext4 file system, if they have write permissions for that file. (CVE-2010-2066, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Neil Brown for reporting CVE-2010-1084, and Dan Rosenberg for reporting CVE-2010-2226 and CVE-2010-2066.

This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these bug fixes will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the References.

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

To install kernel packages manually, use "rpm -ivh [package]". Do not use "rpm -Uvh" as that will remove the running kernel binaries from your system. You may use "rpm -e" to remove old kernels after determining that the new kernel functions properly on your system.

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
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-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-PAE-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.src.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i386.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-doc-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.noarch.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ppc.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-194.11.1.el5.i686.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information