Issued:

2014-06-19

Updated:

2014-06-19

RHSA-2014:0772 - 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 two bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 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 flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's floppy driver handled user space provided data in certain error code paths while processing FDRAWCMD IOCTL commands. A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use this flaw to free (using the kfree() function) arbitrary kernel memory. (CVE-2014-1737, Important)

• It was found that the Linux kernel's floppy driver leaked internal kernel memory addresses to user space during the processing of the FDRAWCMD IOCTL command. A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use this flaw to obtain information about the kernel heap arrangement. (CVE-2014-1738, Low)

Note: A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use these two flaws (CVE-2014-1737 in combination with CVE-2014-1738) to escalate their privileges on the system.

• A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's TCP/IP protocol suite implementation handled TCP packets with both the SYN and FIN flags set. A remote attacker could use this flaw to consume an excessive amount of resources on the target system, potentially resulting in a denial of service. (CVE-2012-6638, Moderate)

Red Hat would like to thank Matthew Daley for reporting CVE-2014-1737 and CVE-2014-1738.

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• While under heavy load, some Fibre Channel storage devices, such as Hitachi and HP Open-V series, can send a logout (LOGO) message to the host system. However, due to a bug in the lpfc driver, this could result in a loss of active paths to the storage and the paths could not be recovered without manual intervention. This update corrects the lpfc driver to ensure automatic recovery of the lost paths to the storage in this scenario. (BZ#1096060)

• A bug in the futex system call could result in an overflow when passing a very large positive timeout. As a consequence, the FUTEX_WAIT operation did not work as intended and the system call was timing out immediately. A backported patch fixes this bug by limiting very large positive timeouts to the maximal supported value. (BZ#1091831)

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/knowledge/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

Updated Packages

• kernel-debuginfo-common-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-kdump-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-PAE-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-kdump-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-kdump-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xen-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xen-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-xen-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-kdump-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-doc-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.noarch.rpm
• kernel-debug-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
• kernel-debuginfo-common-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-debug-devel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ia64.rpm
• kernel-kdump-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.ppc64.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.src.rpm
• kernel-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-PAE-debuginfo-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i686.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.i386.rpm
• kernel-headers-2.6.18-348.27.1.el5.s390x.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 1066055
• This content is not included.BZ - 1094299

CVEs

• CVE-2012-6638
• CVE-2014-1737
• CVE-2014-1738

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important

Additional information

• The Red Hat security contact is This content is not included.secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.
• Offline Security Data data is available for integration with other systems. See Offline Security Data API to get started.