Important: kernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update

Synopsis

Important: kernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Important

Topic

An update for kernel is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Description

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

Security Fix(es):

  • Linux kernel built with the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (CONFIG_KVM) support is vulnerable to a null pointer dereference flaw. It could occur on x86 platform, when emulating an undefined instruction. An attacker could use this flaw to crash the host kernel resulting in DoS. (CVE-2016-8630, Important)
  • A race condition issue leading to a use-after-free flaw was found in the way the raw packet sockets implementation in the Linux kernel networking subsystem handled synchronization while creating the TPACKET_V3 ring buffer. A local user able to open a raw packet socket (requires the CAP_NET_RAW capability) could use this flaw to elevate their privileges on the system. (CVE-2016-8655, Important)
  • A flaw was discovered in the Linux kernel's implementation of VFIO. An attacker issuing an ioctl can create a situation where memory is corrupted and modify memory outside of the expected area. This may overwrite kernel memory and subvert kernel execution. (CVE-2016-9083, Important)
  • The use of a kzalloc with an integer multiplication allowed an integer overflow condition to be reached in vfio_pci_intrs.c. This combined with CVE-2016-9083 may allow an attacker to craft an attack and use unallocated memory, potentially crashing the machine. (CVE-2016-9084, Moderate)

Red Hat would like to thank Philip Pettersson for reporting CVE-2016-8655.

Additional Changes:

Space precludes documenting all of the bug fixes and enhancements included in this advisory. To see the complete list of bug fixes and enhancements, refer to the following KnowledgeBase article: https://access.redhat.com/articles/2940041.

Solution

For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

Affected Products

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 7 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.6 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.5 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.4 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.3 s390x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 7 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 7 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.5 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian 7 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.3 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (for IBM Power LE) - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (for IBM Power LE) - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (for IBM Power LE) - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 ppc64le
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 x86_64
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 x86_64

Fixes

  • BZ - 1389258 - CVE-2016-9083 kernel: State machine confusion bug in vfio driver leading to memory corruption
  • BZ - 1389259 - CVE-2016-9084 kernel: Integer overflow when using kzalloc in vfio driver
  • BZ - 1393350 - CVE-2016-8630 kernel: kvm: x86: NULL pointer dereference during instruction decode
  • BZ - 1400019 - CVE-2016-8655 kernel: Race condition in packet_set_ring leads to use after free

CVEs

References