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.

Security fixes:

  • a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the sctp_rcv_ootb() function
    in the Linux kernel Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)
    implementation. A remote attacker could send a specially-crafted SCTP
    packet to a target system, resulting in a denial of service.
    (CVE-2010-0008, Important)
  • a missing boundary check was found in the do_move_pages() function in
    the memory migration functionality in the Linux kernel. A local user could
    use this flaw to cause a local denial of service or an information leak.
    (CVE-2010-0415, Important)
  • a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the ip6_dst_lookup_tail()
    function in the Linux kernel. An attacker on the local network could
    trigger this flaw by sending IPv6 traffic to a target system, leading to a
    system crash (kernel OOPS) if dst->neighbour is NULL on the target system
    when receiving an IPv6 packet. (CVE-2010-0437, Important)
  • a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the ext4 file system code in
    the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this flaw to trigger a local
    denial of service by mounting a specially-crafted, journal-less ext4 file
    system, if that file system forced an EROFS error. (CVE-2009-4308,
    Moderate)
  • an information leak was found in the print_fatal_signal() implementation
    in the Linux kernel. When "/proc/sys/kernel/print-fatal-signals" is set to
    1 (the default value is 0), memory that is reachable by the kernel could be
    leaked to user-space. This issue could also result in a system crash. Note
    that this flaw only affected the i386 architecture. (CVE-2010-0003,
    Moderate)
  • missing capability checks were found in the ebtables implementation, used
    for creating an Ethernet bridge firewall. This could allow a local,
    unprivileged user to bypass intended capability restrictions and modify
    ebtables rules. (CVE-2010-0007, Low)

Bug fixes:

  • a bug prevented Wake on LAN (WoL) being enabled on certain Intel
    hardware. (BZ#543449)
  • a race issue in the Journaling Block Device. (BZ#553132)
  • programs compiled on x86, and that also call sched_rr_get_interval(),
    were silently corrupted when run on 64-bit systems. (BZ#557684)
  • the RHSA-2010:0019 update introduced a regression, preventing WoL from
    working for network devices using the e1000e driver. (BZ#559335)
  • adding a bonding interface in mode balance-alb to a bridge was not
    functional. (BZ#560588)
  • some KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) guests experienced slow
    performance (and possibly a crash) after suspend/resume. (BZ#560640)
  • on some systems, VF cannot be enabled in dom0. (BZ#560665)
  • on systems with certain network cards, a system crash occurred after
    enabling GRO. (BZ#561417)
  • for x86 KVM guests with pvclock enabled, the boot clocks were registered
    twice, possibly causing KVM to write data to a random memory area during
    the guest's life. (BZ#561454)
  • serious performance degradation for 32-bit applications, that map (mmap)
    thousands of small files, when run on a 64-bit system. (BZ#562746)
  • improved kexec/kdump handling. Previously, on some systems under heavy
    load, kexec/kdump was not functional. (BZ#562772)
  • dom0 was unable to boot when using the Xen hypervisor on a system with a
    large number of logical CPUs. (BZ#562777)
  • a fix for a bug that could potentially cause file system corruption.
    (BZ#564281)
  • a bug caused infrequent cluster issues for users of GFS2. (BZ#564288)
  • gfs2_delete_inode failed on read-only file systems. (BZ#564290)

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
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 5.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 5.4 ia64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 5.4 i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.4 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.4 ppc
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

  • BZ - 547255 - CVE-2009-4308 kernel: ext4: Avoid null pointer dereference when decoding EROFS w/o a journal
  • BZ - 553132 - [Patch] jbd slab cache creation/deletion is racey [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 554578 - CVE-2010-0003 kernel: infoleak if print-fatal-signals=1
  • BZ - 555238 - CVE-2010-0007 kernel: netfilter: ebtables: enforce CAP_NET_ADMIN
  • BZ - 555658 - CVE-2010-0008 kernel: sctp remote denial of service
  • BZ - 557684 - [5.4] sched_rr_get_interval() destroys user data in 32-bit compat mode. [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 559335 - e1000e: wol is broken on 2.6.18-185.el5 [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 560588 - Adding bonding in balance-alb mode to bridge causes host network connectivity to be lost [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 560640 - Call trace error display when resume from suspend to disk (ide block) - pvclock related [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 560665 - [SR-IOV] VF can not be enabled in Dom0 [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 561417 - Kernel panic when using GRO through ixgbe driver and xen bridge [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 561454 - kvm pvclock on i386 suffers from double registering [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 562582 - CVE-2010-0415 kernel: sys_move_pages infoleak
  • BZ - 562746 - Strange vm performance degradation moving 32 bit app from RHEL 4.6 32bit to 5.4 64bit [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 562772 - 5.5 - cciss backport some upstream bits to improve kexec/kdump [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 562777 - [RHEL5 Xen] EXPERIMENTAL EX/MC: Dom0 soft lockups on >64-way system from hard-virt patches [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 563781 - CVE-2010-0437 kernel: ipv6: fix ip6_dst_lookup_tail() NULL pointer dereference
  • BZ - 564281 - Please implement upstream fix for potential filesystem corruption bug [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 564288 - GFS2 Filesystem Withdrawal: fatal: invalid metadata block [rhel-5.4.z]
  • BZ - 564290 - 1916556 - GFS2 gfs2_delete_inode failing on RO filesystem [rhel-5.4.z]

CVEs

References