The load_elf_library in the Linux kernel before 2.6.11.6 allows local users to cause a denial of service (kernel crash) via a crafted ELF library or executable, which causes a free of an invalid pointer.

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

[Updated 9 August 2005] The advisory text has been updated to show that this update fixed the security issue named CVE-2005-0210 but not CVE-2005-0209. The issue CVE-2005-0209 was actually fixed by RHSA-2005:420. No changes have been made to the packages associated with this advisory.

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.

A flaw in the fib_seq_start function was discovered. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) via /proc/net/route. (CVE-2005-1041)

A flaw in the tmpfs file system was discovered. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2005-0977)

An integer overflow flaw was found when writing to a sysfs file. A local user could use this flaw to overwrite kernel memory, causing a denial of service (system crash) or arbitrary code execution.
(CVE-2005-0867)

Keith Owens reported a flaw in the Itanium unw_unwind_to_user function. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) on Itanium architectures. (CVE-2005-0135)

A flaw in the NFS client O_DIRECT error case handling was discovered.
A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2005-0207)

A small memory leak when defragmenting local packets was discovered that affected the Linux 2.6 kernel netfilter subsystem. A local user could send a large number of carefully crafted fragments leading to memory exhaustion (CVE-2005-0210)

A flaw was discovered in the Linux PPP driver. On systems allowing remote users to connect to a server using ppp, a remote client could cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2005-0384)

A flaw was discovered in the ext2 file system code. When a new directory is created, the ext2 block written to disk is not initialized, which could lead to an information leak if a disk image is made available to unprivileged users. (CVE-2005-0400)

A flaw in fragment queuing was discovered that affected the Linux kernel netfilter subsystem. On systems configured to filter or process network packets (e.g. firewalling), a remote attacker could send a carefully crafted set of fragmented packets to a machine and cause a denial of service (system crash). In order to sucessfully exploit this flaw, the attacker would need to know or guess some aspects of the firewall ruleset on the target system. (CVE-2005-0449)

A number of flaws were found in the Linux 2.6 kernel. A local user could use these flaws to read kernel memory or cause a denial of service (crash). (CVE-2005-0529, CVE-2005-0530, CVE-2005-0531)

An integer overflow in sys_epoll_wait in eventpoll.c was discovered. A local user could use this flaw to overwrite low kernel memory. This memory is usually unused, not usually resulting in a security consequence. (CVE-2005-0736)

A flaw when freeing a pointer in load_elf_library was discovered. A local user could potentially use this flaw to cause a denial of service (crash). (CVE-2005-0749)

A flaw was discovered in the bluetooth driver system. On systems where the bluetooth modules are loaded, a local user could use this flaw to gain elevated (root) privileges. (CVE-2005-0750)

A race condition was discovered that affected the Radeon DRI driver. A local user who has DRI privileges on a Radeon graphics card may be able to use this flaw to gain root privileges. (CVE-2005-0767)

Multiple range checking flaws were discovered in the iso9660 file system handler. An attacker could create a malicious file system image which would cause a denial or service or potentially execute arbitrary code if mounted. (CVE-2005-0815)

A flaw was discovered when setting line discipline on a serial tty. A local user may be able to use this flaw to inject mouse movements or keystrokes when another user is logged in. (CVE-2005-0839)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine architectures and configurations as listed in this erratum.

Please note that

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 kernel are now available.

This security advisory has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.

The following security issues were fixed :

The Vicam USB driver did not use the copy_from_user function to access userspace, crossing security boundaries. (CVE-2004-0075)

The ext3 and jfs code did not properly initialize journal descriptor blocks. A privileged local user could read portions of kernel memory.
(CVE-2004-0177)

The terminal layer did not properly lock line discipline changes or pending IO. An unprivileged local user could read portions of kernel memory, or cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2004-0814)

A race condition was discovered. Local users could use this flaw to read the environment variables of another process that is still spawning via /proc/.../cmdline. (CVE-2004-1058)

A flaw in the execve() syscall handling was discovered, allowing a local user to read setuid ELF binaries that should otherwise be protected by standard permissions. (CVE-2004-1073). Red Hat originally reported this as being fixed by RHSA-2004:549, but the associated fix was missing from that update.

Keith Owens reported a flaw in the Itanium unw_unwind_to_user() function. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) on the Itanium architecture. (CVE-2005-0135)

A missing Itanium syscall table entry could allow an unprivileged local user to cause a denial of service (system crash) on the Itanium architecture. (CVE-2005-0137)

A flaw affecting the OUTS instruction on the AMD64 and Intel EM64T architectures was discovered. A local user could use this flaw to access privileged IO ports. (CVE-2005-0204)

A flaw was discovered in the Linux PPP driver. On systems allowing remote users to connect to a server using ppp, a remote client could cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2005-0384)

A flaw in the Red Hat backport of NPTL to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 was discovered that left a pointer to a freed tty structure. A local user could potentially use this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly gain read or write access to ttys that should normally be prevented. (CVE-2005-0403)

A flaw in fragment queuing was discovered affecting the netfilter subsystem. On systems configured to filter or process network packets (for example those configured to do firewalling), a remote attacker could send a carefully crafted set of fragmented packets to a machine and cause a denial of service (system crash). In order to sucessfully exploit this flaw, the attacker would need to know (or guess) some aspects of the firewall ruleset in place on the target system to be able to craft the right fragmented packets. (CVE-2005-0449)

Missing validation of an epoll_wait() system call parameter could allow a local user to cause a denial of service (system crash) on the IBM S/390 and zSeries architectures. (CVE-2005-0736)

A flaw when freeing a pointer in load_elf_library was discovered. A local user could potentially use this flaw to cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2005-0749)

A flaw was discovered in the bluetooth driver system. On system where the bluetooth modules are loaded, a local user could use this flaw to gain elevated (root) privileges. (CVE-2005-0750)

In addition to the security issues listed above, there was an important fix made to the handling of the msync() system call for a particular case in which the call could return without queuing modified mmap()'ed data for file system update. (BZ 147969)

Note: The kernel-unsupported package contains various drivers and modules that are unsupported and therefore might contain security problems that have not been addressed.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine architectures/configurations

Please note that the fix for CVE-2005-0449 required changing the external symbol linkages (kernel module ABI) for the ip_defrag() and ip_ct_gather_frags() functions. Any third-party module using either of these would also need to be fixed.

Mathieu Lafon discovered an information leak in the ext2 file system driver. When a new directory was created, the ext2 block written to disk was not initialized, so that previous memory contents (which could contain sensitive data like passwords) became visible on the raw device. This is particularly important if the target device is removable and thus can be read by users other than root.
(CAN-2005-0400)

Yichen Xie discovered a Denial of Service vulnerability in the ELF loader. A specially crafted ELF library or executable could cause an attempt to free an invalid pointer, which lead to a kernel crash.
(CAN-2005-0749)

Ilja van Sprundel discovered that the bluez_sock_create() function did not check its 'protocol' argument for negative values. A local attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary code with root privileges by creating a Bluetooth socket with a specially crafted protocol number. (CAN-2005-0750)

Michal Zalewski discovered that the iso9660 file system driver fails to check ranges properly in several cases. Mounting a specially crafted CD-ROM may have caused a buffer overflow leading to a kernel crash or even arbitrary code execution. (CAN-2005-0815)

Previous kernels did not restrict the use of the N_MOUSE line discipline in the serial driver. This allowed an unprivileged user to inject mouse movement and/or keystrokes (using the sunkbd driver) into the input subsystem, taking over the console or an X session, where another user is logged in. (CAN-2005-0839)

A Denial of Service vulnerability was found in the tmpfs driver, which is commonly used to mount RAM disks below /dev/shm and /tmp. The shm_nopage() did not properly verify its address argument, which could be exploited by a local user to cause a kernel crash with invalid addresses.
(http://linux.bkbits.net:8080/linux-2.6/cset@420551fbRlv9-QG6Gw9Lw_bKV fPSsg).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

Updated kernel packages that fix a number of security issues as well as other bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (32 bit architectures)

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.

This is a kernel maintenance update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1.

The following security issues were corrected :

A flaw between execve() syscall handling and core dumping of ELF-format executables allowed local unprivileged users to cause a denial of service (system crash) or possibly gain privileges. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has assigned the name CVE-2005-1263 to this issue.

A flaw when freeing a pointer in load_elf_library was discovered. A local user could potentially use this flaw to cause a denial of service (crash). (CVE-2005-0749)

The Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver did not properly check the DMA lock, which could allow remote attackers or local users to cause a denial of service (X Server crash) or possibly modify the video output. (CVE-2004-1056)

A flaw in the moxa serial driver could allow a local user to perform privileged operations such as replacing the firmware. (CVE-2005-0504)

The following bug fixes were also made :

  - Fix a race condition that can cause a panic in
    __get_lease() - Fix a race condition that can cause a     panic when reading /proc/mdstat - Fix incorrect ide     accounting - Prevent non-root users from reloading moxa     driver firmware - Fix a NULL pointer dereference bug in     rpciod - Fix legacy-usb handoff for certain IBM     platforms - Fix a bug that caused busy inodes after     unmount - Provide an additional fix for a memory leak in     scsi_scan_single. - Fix a potential kswapd/dquot     deadlock. - Fix a potential local DoS in shmemfs. - Fix     a random poolsize vulnerability.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine configurations as listed in this erratum.

Multiple vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel have been discovered and fixed in this update. The following have been fixed in the 2.4 kernels :

Colin Percival discovered a vulnerability in Intel's Hyper-Threading technology could allow a local user to use a malicious thread to create covert channels, monitor the execution of other threads, and obtain sensitive information such as cryptographic keys via a timing attack on memory cache misses. This has been corrected by disabling HT support in all kernels (CVE-2005-0109).

When forwarding fragmented packets, a hardware assisted checksum could only be used once which could lead to a Denial of Service attack or crash by remote users (CVE-2005-0209).

A flaw in the Linux PPP driver was found where on systems allowing remote users to connect to a server via PPP, a remote client could cause a crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (CVE-2005-0384).

An information leak in the ext2 filesystem code was found where when a new directory is created, the ext2 block written to disk is not initialized (CVE-2005-0400).

A signedness error in the copy_from_read_buf function in n_tty.c allows local users to read kernel memory via a negative argument (CVE-2005-0530).

George Guninski discovered a buffer overflow in the ATM driver where the atm_get_addr() function does not validate its arguments sufficiently which could allow a local attacker to overwrite large portions of kernel memory by supplying a negative length argument.
This could potentially lead to the execution of arbitrary code (CVE-2005-0531).

A flaw when freeing a pointer in load_elf_library was found that could be abused by a local user to potentially crash the machine causing a Denial of Service (CVE-2005-0749).

A problem with the Bluetooth kernel stack in kernels 2.4.6 through 2.4.30-rc1 and 2.6 through 2.6.11.5 could be used by a local attacker to gain root access or crash the machine (CVE-2005-0750).

A race condition in the Radeon DRI driver allows a local user with DRI privileges to execute arbitrary code as root (CVE-2005-0767).

Paul Starzetz found an integer overflow in the ELF binary format loader's code dump function in kernels prior to and including 2.4.31-pre1 and 2.6.12-rc4. By creating and executing a specially crafted ELF executable, a local attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary code with root and kernel privileges (CVE-2005-1263).

Multiple vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel have been discovered and fixed in this update. The following CVE names have been fixed in the LE2005 kernel :

Colin Percival discovered a vulnerability in Intel's Hyper-Threading technology could allow a local user to use a malicious thread to create covert channels, monitor the execution of other threads, and obtain sensitive information such as cryptographic keys via a timing attack on memory cache misses. This has been corrected by disabling HT support in all kernels (CVE-2005-0109).

An information leak in the ext2 filesystem code in kernels prior to 2.6.11.6 was found where when a new directory is created, the ext2 block written to disk is not initialized (CVE-2005-0400).

A flaw when freeing a pointer in load_elf_library was found in kernels prior to 2.6.11.6 that could be abused by a local user to potentially crash the machine causing a Denial of Service (CVE-2005-0749).

A problem with the Bluetooth kernel stack in kernels 2.4.6 through 2.4.30-rc1 and 2.6 through 2.6.11.5 could be used by a local attacker to gain root access or crash the machine (CVE-2005-0750).

Paul Starzetz found an integer overflow in the ELF binary format loader's code dump function in kernels prior to and including 2.4.31-pre1 and 2.6.12-rc4. By creating and executing a specially crafted ELF executable, a local attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary code with root and kernel privileges (CVE-2005-1263).

The drivers for raw devices used the wrong function to pass arguments to the underlying block device in 2.6.x kernels. This made the kernel address space accessible to user-space applications allowing any local user with at least read access to a device in /dev/raw/* (usually only root) to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges (CVE-2005-1264).

The it87 and via686a hardware monitor drivers in kernels prior to 2.6.11.8 and 2.6.12 prior to 2.6.12-rc2 created a sysfs file named 'alarms' with write permissions although they are not designed to be writable. This allowed a local user to crash the kernel by attempting to write to these files (CVE-2005-1369).

In addition to the above-noted CVE-2005-0109, CVE-2005-0400, CVE-2005-0749, CVE-2005-0750, and CVE-2005-1369 fixes, the following CVE names have been fixed in the 10.1 kernel :

The POSIX Capability Linux Security Module (LSM) for 2.6 kernels up to and including 2.6.8.1 did not properly handle the credentials of a process that is launched before the module is loaded, which could be used by local attackers to gain elevated privileges (CVE-2004-1337).

A flaw in the Linux PPP driver in kernel 2.6.8.1 was found where on systems allowing remote users to connect to a server via PPP, a remote client could cause a crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (CVE-2005-0384).

George Guninski discovered a buffer overflow in the ATM driver in kernels 2.6.10 and 2.6.11 before 2.6.11-rc4 where the atm_get_addr() function does not validate its arguments sufficiently which could allow a local attacker to overwrite large portions of kernel memory by supplying a negative length argument. This could potentially lead to the execution of arbitrary code (CVE-2005-0531).

The reiserfs_copy_from_user_to_file_region function in reiserfs/file.c before kernel 2.6.11, when running on 64-bit architectures, could allow local users to trigger a buffer overflow as a result of casting discrepancies between size_t and int data types. This could allow an attacker to overwrite kernel memory, crash the machine, or potentially obtain root access (CVE-2005-0532).

A race condition in the Radeon DRI driver in kernel 2.6.8.1 allows a local user with DRI privileges to execute arbitrary code as root (CVE-2005-0767).

Access was not restricted to the N_MOUSE discipline for a TTY in kernels prior to 2.6.11. This could allow local attackers to obtain elevated privileges by injecting mouse or keyboard events into other user's sessions (CVE-2005-0839).

Some futex functions in futex.c in 2.6 kernels performed get_user calls while holding the mmap_sem semaphore, which could allow a local attacker to cause a deadlock condition in do_page_fault by triggering get_user faults while another thread is executing mmap or other functions (CVE-2005-0937).

In addition to the above-noted CVE-2004-1337, CVE-2005-0109, CVE-2005-0384, CVE-2005-0400, CVE-2005-0531, CVE-2005-0532, CVE-2005-0749, CVE-2005-0750, CVE-2005-0767, CVE-2005-0839, CVE-2005-0937, CVE-2005-1263, CVE-2005-1264, and CVE-2005-1369 fixes, the following CVE names have been fixed in the 10.0/ Corporate 3.0 kernels :

A race condition in the setsid function in kernels before 2.6.8.1 could allow a local attacker to cause a Denial of Service and possibly access portions of kernel memory related to TTY changes, locking, and semaphores (CVE-2005-0178).

When forwarding fragmented packets in kernel 2.6.8.1, a hardware assisted checksum could only be used once which could lead to a Denial of Service attack or crash by remote users (CVE-2005-0209).

A signedness error in the copy_from_read_buf function in n_tty.c before kernel 2.6.11 allows local users to read kernel memory via a negative argument (CVE-2005-0530).

A vulnerability in the fib_seq_start() function allowed a local user to crash the system by readiung /proc/net/route in a certain way, causing a Denial of Service (CVE-2005-1041).

A vulnerability in the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver in the 2.6 kernel does not properly check the DMA lock, which could allow remote attackers or local users to cause a Denial of Service (X Server crash) and possibly modify the video output (CVE-2004-1056).

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2005:366 advisory.

  - security flaw (CVE-2005-0135, CVE-2005-0207, CVE-2005-0210, CVE-2005-0384, CVE-2005-0400, CVE-2005-0449,     CVE-2005-0529, CVE-2005-0530, CVE-2005-0531, CVE-2005-0736, CVE-2005-0749, CVE-2005-0750, CVE-2005-0767,     CVE-2005-0815, CVE-2005-0839, CVE-2005-0867, CVE-2005-0977, CVE-2005-1041)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues in the Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 3 kernel are now available.

This security advisory has been rated as having important security
impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.

The following security issues were fixed :

The Vicam USB driver did not use the copy_from_user function to access
userspace, crossing security boundaries. (CVE-2004-0075)

The ext3 and jfs code did not properly initialize journal descriptor
blocks. A privileged local user could read portions of kernel memory.
(CVE-2004-0177)

The terminal layer did not properly lock line discipline changes or
pending IO. An unprivileged local user could read portions of kernel
memory, or cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2004-0814)

A race condition was discovered. Local users could use this flaw to
read the environment variables of another process that is still
spawning via /proc/.../cmdline. (CVE-2004-1058)

A flaw in the execve() syscall handling was discovered, allowing a
local user to read setuid ELF binaries that should otherwise be
protected by standard permissions. (CVE-2004-1073). Red Hat originally
reported this as being fixed by RHSA-2004:549, but the associated fix
was missing from that update.

Keith Owens reported a flaw in the Itanium unw_unwind_to_user()
function. A local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of
service (system crash) on the Itanium architecture. (CVE-2005-0135)

A missing Itanium syscall table entry could allow an unprivileged
local user to cause a denial of service (system crash) on the Itanium
architecture. (CVE-2005-0137)

A flaw affecting the OUTS instruction on the AMD64 and Intel EM64T
architectures was discovered. A local user could use this flaw to
access privileged IO ports. (CVE-2005-0204)

A flaw was discovered in the Linux PPP driver. On systems allowing
remote users to connect to a server using ppp, a remote client could
cause a denial of service (system crash). (CVE-2005-0384)

A flaw in the Red Hat backport of NPTL to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
was discovered that left a pointer to a freed tty structure. A local
user could potentially use this flaw to cause a denial of service
(system crash) or possibly gain read or write access to ttys that
should normally be prevented. (CVE-2005-0403)

A flaw in fragment queuing was discovered affecting the netfilter
subsystem. On systems configured to filter or process network packets
(for example those configured to do firewalling), a remote attacker
could send a carefully crafted set of fragmented packets to a machine
and cause a denial of service (system crash). In order to sucessfully
exploit this flaw, the attacker would need to know (or guess) some
aspects of the firewall ruleset in place on the target system to be
able to craft the right fragmented packets. (CVE-2005-0449)

Missing validation of an epoll_wait() system call parameter could
allow a local user to cause a denial of service (system crash) on the
IBM S/390 and zSeries architectures. (CVE-2005-0736)

A flaw when freeing a pointer in load_elf_library was discovered. A
local user could potentially use this flaw to cause a denial of
service (system crash). (CVE-2005-0749)

A flaw was discovered in the bluetooth driver system. On system where
the bluetooth modules are loaded, a local user could use this flaw to
gain elevated (root) privileges. (CVE-2005-0750)

In addition to the security issues listed above, there was an
important fix made to the handling of the msync() system call for a
particular case in which the call could return without queuing
modified mmap()'ed data for file system update. (BZ 147969)

Note: The kernel-unsupported package contains various drivers and
modules that are unsupported and therefore might contain security
problems that have not been addressed.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade their kernels
to the packages associated with their machine
architectures/configurations

Please note that the fix for CVE-2005-0449 required changing the
external symbol linkages (kernel module ABI) for the ip_defrag() and
ip_ct_gather_frags() functions. Any third-party module using either of
these would also need to be fixed.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2005-366.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2005-293.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
21928	CentOS 3 / 4 : kernel (CESA-2005:366)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
21923	CentOS 3 : kernel (CESA-2005:293)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
20489	Ubuntu 4.10 : linux-source-2.6.8.1 vulnerabilities (USN-103-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
19543	RHEL 2.1 : kernel (RHSA-2005:529)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
18599	Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : kernel-2.4 (MDKSA-2005:111)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	high
18598	Mandrake Linux Security Advisory : kernel (MDKSA-2005:110)	Nessus	Mandriva Local Security Checks	high
18128	RHEL 3 : kernel (RHSA-2005:293)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
18095	RHEL 4 : kernel (RHSA-2005:366)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
801608	Red Hat 2005-293 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high
801406	CentOS RHSA-2005-366 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high
801398	CentOS RHSA-2005-293 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2005-0749

medium

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

high

high