Issued:
2010-11-23
Updated:
2010-11-23

RHSA-2010:0907 - 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 one security issue and four bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Extended Update Support.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link 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 issue:

  • 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)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

  • A race condition existed when generating new process IDs with the result that the wrong process could have been signaled or killed accidentally, leading to various application faults. This update detects and disallows the reuse of PID numbers. (BZ#638865)

  • In a two node cluster, moving 100 files between two folders using the lock master was nearly instantaneous. However, not using the lock master resulted in considerably worse performance on both GFS1 (Global File System

  1. and GFS2 (Global File System 2) file systems. With this update, not using the lock master does not lead to worsened performance on either of the aforementioned file systems. (BZ#639071)

  • The device naming changed after additional devices were added to the system and caused various problems. With this update, device naming remains constant after adding any additional devices. (BZ#646764)

  • On some bnx2-based devices, frames could drop unexpectedly. This was shown by the increasing "rx_fw_discards" values in the "ethtool --statistics" output. With this update, frames are no longer dropped and all bnx2-based devices work as expected. (BZ#649254)

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 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 endian - Extended Update Support5.4ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support5.4s390x

Updated Packages

  • kernel-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-doc-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.noarch.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-164.30.1.el5.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information