Issued:
2011-07-21
Updated:
2011-07-21

RHSA-2011:1065 - Important: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 kernel security and bug fix update

Synopsis

Important: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 kernel security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory Important

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues, address several hundred bugs, and add numerous enhancements are now available as part of the ongoing support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5. This is the seventh regular update.

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:

  • A flaw was found in the way the Xen hypervisor implementation handled instruction emulation during virtual machine exits. A malicious user-space process running in an SMP guest could trick the emulator into reading a different instruction than the one that caused the virtual machine to exit. An unprivileged guest user could trigger this flaw to crash the host. This only affects systems with both an AMD x86 processor and the AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) extensions enabled. (CVE-2011-1780, Important)

  • A flaw allowed the tc_fill_qdisc() function in the Linux kernel's packet scheduler API implementation to be called on built-in qdisc structures. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a NULL pointer dereference, resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2011-2525, Moderate)

  • A flaw was found in the way space was allocated in the Linux kernel's Global File System 2 (GFS2) implementation. If the file system was almost full, and a local, unprivileged user made an fallocate() request, it could result in a denial of service. Note: Setting quotas to prevent users from using all available disk space would prevent exploitation of this flaw. (CVE-2011-2689, Moderate)

These updated kernel packages include a number of bug fixes and enhancements. Space precludes documenting all of these changes in this advisory. Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 Technical Notes for information about the most significant bug fixes and enhancements included in this update:

https://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/5.7_Technical_Notes/kernel.html#RHSA-2011-1065

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users are advised to install these updated packages, which 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.https://access.redhat.com/kb/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-2.6.18-274.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-274.el5.src.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-PAE-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-doc-2.6.18-274.el5.noarch.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-274.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-274.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-274.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-2.6.18-274.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-274.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-2.6.18-274.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.i686.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-274.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.el5.s390x.rpm
  • kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-2.6.18-274.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-debug-2.6.18-274.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.el5.i386.rpm
  • kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.ia64.rpm
  • kernel-devel-2.6.18-274.el5.ppc64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information