Issued:: 2013-12-05
Updated:: 2013-12-05

RHSA-2013:1783 - 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 three security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 Extended Update Support.

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.

A race condition was found in the way asynchronous I/O and fallocate() interacted when using the ext4 file system. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to expose random data from an extent whose data blocks have not yet been written, and thus contain data from a deleted file. (CVE-2012-4508, Important)
An information leak flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's device mapper subsystem, under certain conditions, interpreted data written to snapshot block devices. An attacker could use this flaw to read data from disk blocks in free space, which are normally inaccessible. (CVE-2013-4299, Moderate)
A format string flaw was found in the Linux kernel's block layer. A privileged, local user could potentially use this flaw to escalate their privileges to kernel level (ring0). (CVE-2013-2851, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Theodore Ts'o for reporting CVE-2012-4508, Fujitsu for reporting CVE-2013-4299, and Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2013-2851. Upstream acknowledges Dmitry Monakhov as the original reporter of CVE-2012-4508.

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

All kernel users are advised to 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 https://access.redhat.com/site/articles/11258

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

Product	Version	Arch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support	6.3	x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support	6.3	i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support	6.3	ppc64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support	6.3	s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI	6.3	x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI	6.3	i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node	6.3	x86_64

Updated Packages

kernel-bootwrapper-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-firmware-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.noarch.rpm
perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.src.rpm
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-kdump-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
python-perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
python-perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-common-i686-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
python-perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-kdump-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
python-perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-doc-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.noarch.rpm
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-debug-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
kernel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.ppc64.rpm
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
kernel-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.s390x.rpm
perf-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
python-perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-279.39.1.el6.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

References

Additional information

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