fs/open.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.22 does not properly strip setuid and setgid bits when there is a write to a file, which allows local users to gain the privileges of a different group, and obtain sensitive information or possibly have unspecified other impact, by creating an executable file in a setgid directory through the (1) truncate or (2) ftruncate function in conjunction with memory-mapped I/O.

The remote VMware ESX / ESXi host is missing a security-related patch.
It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities, including remote code execution vulnerabilities, in the following components :

  - ISC DHCP dhclient
  - Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem
  - Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
  - Java SE Development Kit (JDK)
  - Java SE Web Start
  - Linux kernel
  - Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation
  - Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition INET6
  - Linux kernel tty
  - Linux kernel virtual file system (VFS)
  - Red Hat dhcpd init script for DHCP
  - SBNI WAN driver

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2008:0973 :

Updated kernel packages that resolve several security issues and fix various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

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

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

This update addresses the following security issues :

* Tavis Ormandy discovered a deficiency in the Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to prepare and run a specially crafted binary which would use this deficiency to leak uninitialized and potentially sensitive data.
(CVE-2008-0598, Important)

* a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition (SIT) INET6 implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136, Important)

* missing capability checks were found in the SBNI WAN driver which could allow a local user to bypass intended capability restrictions.
(CVE-2008-3525, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, Important)

* a buffer overflow flaw was found in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6063, Moderate)

* multiple NULL pointer dereferences were found in various Linux kernel network drivers. These drivers were missing checks for terminal validity, which could allow privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-2812, Moderate)

* a deficiency was found in the Linux kernel virtual filesystem (VFS) implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to attempt file creation within deleted directories, possibly causing a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3275, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* the incorrect kunmap function was used in nfs_xdr_readlinkres.
kunmap() was used where kunmap_atomic() should have been. As a consequence, if an NFSv2 or NFSv3 server exported a volume containing a symlink which included a path equal to or longer than the local system's PATH_MAX, accessing the link caused a kernel oops. This has been corrected in this update.

* mptctl_gettargetinfo did not check if pIoc3 was NULL before using it as a pointer. This caused a kernel panic in mptctl_gettargetinfo in some circumstances. A check has been added which prevents this.

* lost tick compensation code in the timer interrupt routine triggered without apparent cause. When running as a fully-virtualized client, this spurious triggering caused the 64-bit version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 to present highly inaccurate times. With this update the lost tick compensation code is turned off when the operating system is running as a fully-virtualized client under Xen or VMware(r).

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users should install this updated kernel which addresses these vulnerabilities and fixes these bugs.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2008:0972 :

Updated kernel packages that resolve several security issues and fix various bugs 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.

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

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Direct-IO implementation.
This could have allowed a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6716, Important)

* when running ptrace in 31-bit mode on an IBM S/390 or IBM System z kernel, a local unprivileged user could cause a denial of service by reading from or writing into a padding area in the user_regs_struct32 structure. (CVE-2008-1514, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could have allowed a local unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, Important)

* Tobias Klein reported a missing check in the Linux kernel's Open Sound System (OSS) implementation. This deficiency could have led to an information leak. (CVE-2008-3272, Moderate)

* a potential denial of service attack was discovered in the Linux kernel's PWC USB video driver. A local unprivileged user could have used this flaw to bring the kernel USB subsystem into the busy-waiting state. (CVE-2007-5093, Low)

* the ext2 and ext3 file systems code failed to properly handle corrupted data structures, leading to a possible local denial of service issue when read or write operations were performed.
(CVE-2008-3528, Low)

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs :

* when using the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option, appending to an open file on a CIFS share resulted in that file being overwritten with the data to be appended.

* a kernel panic occurred when a device with PCI ID 8086:10c8 was present on a system with a loaded ixgbe driver.

* due to an aacraid driver regression, the kernel failed to boot when trying to load the aacraid driver and printed the following error message: 'aac_srb: aac_fib_send failed with status: 8195'.

* due to an mpt driver regression, when RAID 1 was configured on Primergy systems with an LSI SCSI IME 53C1020/1030 controller, the kernel panicked during boot.

* the mpt driver produced a large number of extraneous debugging messages when performing a 'Host reset' operation.

* due to a regression in the sym driver, the kernel panicked when a SCSI hot swap was performed using MCP18 hardware.

* all cores on a multi-core system now scale their frequencies in accordance with the policy set by the system's CPU frequency governor.

* the netdump subsystem suffered from several stability issues. These are addressed in this updated kernel.

* under certain conditions, the ext3 file system reported a negative count of used blocks.

* reading /proc/self/mem incorrectly returned 'Invalid argument' instead of 'input/output error' due to a regression.

* under certain conditions, the kernel panicked when a USB device was removed while the system was busy accessing the device.

* a race condition in the kernel could have led to a kernel crash during the creation of a new process.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2008-0957 advisory.

    - [i386] vDSO: use install_special_mapping (Peter Zijlstra ) [460275 460276] {CVE-2008-3527}
    - [fs] remove SUID when splicing into an inode (Eric Sandeen ) [464451 464452] {CVE-2008-3833}
    - [fs] open() allows setgid bit when user is not in group (Eugene Teo ) [463867 463687] {CVE-2008-4210}
    - [xen] allow guests to hide the TSC from applications (Chris Lalancette ) [378471 378481] {CVE-2007-5907}
    - [x86_64] xen: local DOS due to NT bit leakage (Eugene Teo ) [457721 457722] {CVE-2006-5755}
    - [net] dccp_setsockopt_change integer overflow (Vitaly Mayatskikh ) [459232 459235] {CVE-2008-3276}
    - [mm] optimize ZERO_PAGE in 'get_user_pages' and fix XIP (Anton Arapov ) [452667 452668] {CVE-2008-2372}

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Oracle Linux security advisory.

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

This update addresses the following security issues :

  - Tavis Ormandy discovered a deficiency in the Linux     kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation. This could allow a     local, unprivileged user to prepare and run a specially     crafted binary which would use this deficiency to leak     uninitialized and potentially sensitive data.
    (CVE-2008-0598, Important)

  - a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux     kernel Simple Internet Transition (SIT) INET6     implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged     user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136,     Important)

  - missing capability checks were found in the SBNI WAN     driver which could allow a local user to bypass intended     capability restrictions. (CVE-2008-3525, Important)

  - the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write()     functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This     could allow a local, unprivileged user to obtain access     to privileged information. (CVE-2008-4210, Important)

  - a buffer overflow flaw was found in Integrated Services     Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem. A local, unprivileged     user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service.
    (CVE-2007-6063, Moderate)

  - multiple NULL pointer dereferences were found in various     Linux kernel network drivers. These drivers were missing     checks for terminal validity, which could allow     privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-2812, Moderate)

  - a deficiency was found in the Linux kernel virtual     filesystem (VFS) implementation. This could allow a     local, unprivileged user to attempt file creation within     deleted directories, possibly causing a denial of     service. (CVE-2008-3275, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

  - the incorrect kunmap function was used in     nfs_xdr_readlinkres. kunmap() was used where     kunmap_atomic() should have been. As a consequence, if     an NFSv2 or NFSv3 server exported a volume containing a     symlink which included a path equal to or longer than     the local system's PATH_MAX, accessing the link caused a     kernel oops. This has been corrected in this update.

  - mptctl_gettargetinfo did not check if pIoc3 was NULL     before using it as a pointer. This caused a kernel panic     in mptctl_gettargetinfo in some circumstances. A check     has been added which prevents this.

  - lost tick compensation code in the timer interrupt     routine triggered without apparent cause. When running     as a fully-virtualized client, this spurious triggering     caused the 64-bit version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3     to present highly inaccurate times. With this update the     lost tick compensation code is turned off when the     operating system is running as a fully-virtualized     client under Xen or VMware&reg;.

- a flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Direct-IO     implementation. This could have allowed a local     unprivileged user to cause a denial of service.
    (CVE-2007-6716, Important)

  - when running ptrace in 31-bit mode on an IBM S/390 or     IBM System z kernel, a local unprivileged user could     cause a denial of service by reading from or writing     into a padding area in the user_regs_struct32 structure.
    (CVE-2008-1514, Important)

  - the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write()     functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This     could have allowed a local unprivileged user to obtain     access to privileged information. (CVE-2008-4210,     Important)

  - Tobias Klein reported a missing check in the Linux     kernel's Open Sound System (OSS) implementation. This     deficiency could have led to an information leak.
    (CVE-2008-3272, Moderate)

  - a potential denial of service attack was discovered in     the Linux kernel's PWC USB video driver. A local     unprivileged user could have used this flaw to bring the     kernel USB subsystem into the busy-waiting state.
    (CVE-2007-5093, Low)

  - the ext2 and ext3 file systems code failed to properly     handle corrupted data structures, leading to a possible     local denial of service issue when read or write     operations were performed. (CVE-2008-3528, Low)

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs :

  - when using the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option, appending to     an open file on a CIFS share resulted in that file being     overwritten with the data to be appended.

  - a kernel panic occurred when a device with PCI ID     8086:10c8 was present on a system with a loaded ixgbe     driver.

  - due to an aacraid driver regression, the kernel failed     to boot when trying to load the aacraid driver and     printed the following error message: 'aac_srb:
    aac_fib_send failed with status: 8195'.

  - due to an mpt driver regression, when RAID 1 was     configured on Primergy systems with an LSI SCSI IME     53C1020/1030 controller, the kernel panicked during     boot.

  - the mpt driver produced a large number of extraneous     debugging messages when performing a 'Host reset'     operation.

  - due to a regression in the sym driver, the kernel     panicked when a SCSI hot swap was performed using MCP18     hardware.

  - all cores on a multi-core system now scale their     frequencies in accordance with the policy set by the     system's CPU frequency governor.

  - the netdump subsystem suffered from several stability     issues. These are addressed in this updated kernel.

  - under certain conditions, the ext3 file system reported     a negative count of used blocks.

  - reading /proc/self/mem incorrectly returned 'Invalid     argument' instead of 'input/output error' due to a     regression.

  - under certain conditions, the kernel panicked when a USB     device was removed while the system was busy accessing     the device.

  - a race condition in the kernel could have led to a     kernel crash during the creation of a new process.

- the Xen implementation did not prevent applications     running in a para-virtualized guest from modifying CR4     TSC. This could cause a local denial of service.
    (CVE-2007-5907, Important)

  - Tavis Ormandy reported missing boundary checks in the     Virtual Dynamic Shared Objects (vDSO) implementation.
    This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a     denial of service or escalate privileges.
    (CVE-2008-3527, Important)

  - the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write()     functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This     could allow a local unprivileged user to obtain access     to privileged information. (CVE-2008-4210,     CVE-2008-3833, Important)

  - a flaw was found in the Linux kernel splice     implementation. This could cause a local denial of     service when there is a certain failure in the     add_to_page_cache_lru() function. (CVE-2008-4302,     Important)

  - a flaw was found in the Linux kernel when running on     AMD64 systems. During a context switch, EFLAGS were     being neither saved nor restored. This could allow a     local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service.
    (CVE-2006-5755, Low)

  - a flaw was found in the Linux kernel virtual memory     implementation. This could allow a local unprivileged     user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2372, Low)

  - an integer overflow was discovered in the Linux kernel     Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP)     implementation. This could allow a remote attacker to     cause a denial of service. By default, remote DCCP is     blocked by SELinux. (CVE-2008-3276, Low)

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs :

  - random32() seeding has been improved.

  - in a multi-core environment, a race between the QP async     event-handler and the destro_qp() function could occur.
    This led to unpredictable results during invalid memory     access, which could lead to a kernel crash.

  - a format string was omitted in the call to the     request_module() function.

  - a stack overflow caused by an infinite recursion bug in     the binfmt_misc kernel module was corrected.

  - the ata_scsi_rbuf_get() and ata_scsi_rbuf_put()     functions now check for scatterlist usage before calling     kmap_atomic().

  - a sentinel NUL byte was added to the device_write()     function to ensure that lspace.name is NUL-terminated.

  - in the character device driver, a range_is_allowed()     check was added to the read_mem() and write_mem()     functions. It was possible for an illegitimate     application to bypass these checks, and access /dev/mem     beyond the 1M limit by calling mmap_mem() instead. Also,     the parameters of range_is_allowed() were changed to     cleanly handle greater than 32-bits of physical address     on 32-bit architectures.

  - some of the newer Nehalem-based systems declare their     CPU DSDT entries as type 'Alias'. During boot, this     caused an 'Error attaching device data' message to be     logged.

  - the evtchn event channel device lacked locks and memory     barriers. This has led to xenstore becoming unresponsive     on the Itanium&reg; architecture.

  - sending of gratuitous ARP packets in the Xen frontend     network driver is now delayed until the backend signals     that its carrier status has been processed by the stack.

  - on forcedeth devices, whenever setting ethtool     parameters for link speed, the device could stop     receiving interrupts.

  - the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option did not allow text to be     appended to files.

  - the gettimeofday() function returned a backwards time on     Intel&reg; 64.

  - residual-count corrections during UNDERRUN handling were     added to the qla2xxx driver.

  - the fix for a small quirk was removed for certain     Adaptec controllers for which it caused problems.

  - the 'xm trigger init' command caused a domain panic if a     userland application was running on a guest on the     Intel&reg; 64 architecture.

This patch updates the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 kernel. It fixes various bugs and security issues.

The following security issues are addressed :

  - fs/open.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.22 does not     properly strip setuid and setgid bits when there is a     write to a file, which allows local users to gain the     privileges of a different group, and obtain sensitive     information or possibly have unspecified other impact,     by creating an executable file in a setgid directory     through the (1) truncate or (2) ftruncate function in     conjunction with memory-mapped I/O. (CVE-2008-4210)

  - The ext[234] filesystem code fails to properly handle     corrupted data structures. With a mounted filesystem     image or partition that have corrupted dir->i_size and     dir->i_blocks, a user performing either a read or write     operation on the mounted image or partition can lead to     a possible denial of service by spamming the logfile.
    (CVE-2008-3528)

  - fs/direct-io.c in the dio subsystem in the Linux kernel     did not properly zero out the dio struct, which allows     local users to cause a denial of service (OOPS), as     demonstrated by a certain fio test. (CVE-2007-6716)

All other bugfixes can be found by looking at the RPM changelog.

This kernel update for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 2 fixes various bugs and some security problems :

  - When creating a file, open()/creat() allowed the setgid     bit to be set via the mode argument even when, due to     the bsdgroups mount option or the file being created in     a setgid directory, the new file's group is one which     the user is not a member of. The local attacker could     then use ftruncate() and memory-mapped I/O to turn the     new file into an arbitrary binary and thus gain the     privileges of this group, since these operations do not     clear the setgid bit.'. (CVE-2008-4210)

  - The ext[234] filesystem code fails to properly handle     corrupted data structures. With a mounted filesystem     image or partition that have corrupted dir->i_size and     dir->i_blocks, a user performing either a read or write     operation on the mounted image or partition can lead to     a possible denial of service by spamming the logfile.
    (CVE-2008-3528)

  - The S/390 ptrace code allowed local users to cause a     denial of service (kernel panic) via the     user-area-padding test from the ptrace testsuite in     31-bit mode, which triggers an invalid dereference.
    (CVE-2008-1514)

  - fs/direct-io.c in the dio subsystem in the Linux kernel     did not properly zero out the dio struct, which allows     local users to cause a denial of service (OOPS), as     demonstrated by a certain fio test. (CVE-2007-6716)

  - Added missing capability checks in sbni_ioctl().
    (CVE-2008-3525)

Also OCFS2 was updated to version v1.4.1-1.

The full amount of changes can be reviewed in the RPM changelog.

Updated kernel packages that resolve several security issues and fix various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

[Updated 12th November 2008] The original packages distributed with this errata had a bug which prevented the Xen kernel booting on older hardware. We have updated the packages to correct this bug.

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

* the Xen implementation did not prevent applications running in a para-virtualized guest from modifying CR4 TSC. This could cause a local denial of service. (CVE-2007-5907, Important)

* Tavis Ormandy reported missing boundary checks in the Virtual Dynamic Shared Objects (vDSO) implementation. This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service or escalate privileges.
(CVE-2008-3527, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could allow a local unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, CVE-2008-3833, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel splice implementation. This could cause a local denial of service when there is a certain failure in the add_to_page_cache_lru() function. (CVE-2008-4302, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel when running on AMD64 systems.
During a context switch, EFLAGS were being neither saved nor restored.
This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2006-5755, Low)

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel virtual memory implementation.
This could allow a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2372, Low)

* an integer overflow was discovered in the Linux kernel Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) implementation. This could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service. By default, remote DCCP is blocked by SELinux. (CVE-2008-3276, Low)

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs :

* random32() seeding has been improved.

* in a multi-core environment, a race between the QP async event-handler and the destro_qp() function could occur. This led to unpredictable results during invalid memory access, which could lead to a kernel crash.

* a format string was omitted in the call to the request_module() function.

* a stack overflow caused by an infinite recursion bug in the binfmt_misc kernel module was corrected.

* the ata_scsi_rbuf_get() and ata_scsi_rbuf_put() functions now check for scatterlist usage before calling kmap_atomic().

* a sentinel NUL byte was added to the device_write() function to ensure that lspace.name is NUL-terminated.

* in the character device driver, a range_is_allowed() check was added to the read_mem() and write_mem() functions. It was possible for an illegitimate application to bypass these checks, and access /dev/mem beyond the 1M limit by calling mmap_mem() instead. Also, the parameters of range_is_allowed() were changed to cleanly handle greater than 32-bits of physical address on 32-bit architectures.

* some of the newer Nehalem-based systems declare their CPU DSDT entries as type 'Alias'. During boot, this caused an 'Error attaching device data' message to be logged.

* the evtchn event channel device lacked locks and memory barriers.
This has led to xenstore becoming unresponsive on the Itanium(r) architecture.

* sending of gratuitous ARP packets in the Xen frontend network driver is now delayed until the backend signals that its carrier status has been processed by the stack.

* on forcedeth devices, whenever setting ethtool parameters for link speed, the device could stop receiving interrupts.

* the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option did not allow text to be appended to files.

* the gettimeofday() function returned a backwards time on Intel(r) 64.

* residual-count corrections during UNDERRUN handling were added to the qla2xxx driver.

* the fix for a small quirk was removed for certain Adaptec controllers for which it caused problems.

* the 'xm trigger init' command caused a domain panic if a userland application was running on a guest on the Intel(r) 64 architecture.

Users of kernel should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

a. Service Console update for DHCP and third-party library update    for DHCP client.

   DHCP is an Internet-standard protocol by which a computer can be    connected to a local network, ask to be given configuration    information, and receive from a server enough information to    configure itself as a member of that network.

   A stack-based buffer overflow in the script_write_params method in    ISC DHCP dhclient allows remote DHCP servers to execute arbitrary    code via a crafted subnet-mask option.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-0692 to this issue.

   An insecure temporary file use flaw was discovered in the DHCP    daemon's init script ('/etc/init.d/dhcpd'). A local attacker could    use this flaw to overwrite an arbitrary file with the output of the    'dhcpd -t' command via a symbolic link attack, if a system    administrator executed the DHCP init script with the 'configtest',    'restart', or 'reload' option.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-1893 to this issue.

b. Updated Service Console package kernel

   Service Console package kernel update to version    kernel-2.4.21-58.EL.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the names CVE-2008-4210, CVE-2008-3275, CVE-2008-0598,    CVE-2008-2136, CVE-2008-2812, CVE-2007-6063, CVE-2008-3525 to the    security issues fixed in kernel-2.4.21-58.EL

c. JRE Security Update

   JRE update to version 1.5.0_18, which addresses multiple security    issues that existed in earlier releases of JRE.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the following names to the security issues fixed in    JRE 1.5.0_17: CVE-2008-2086, CVE-2008-5347, CVE-2008-5348,    CVE-2008-5349, CVE-2008-5350, CVE-2008-5351, CVE-2008-5352,    CVE-2008-5353, CVE-2008-5354, CVE-2008-5356, CVE-2008-5357,    CVE-2008-5358, CVE-2008-5359, CVE-2008-5360, CVE-2008-5339,    CVE-2008-5342, CVE-2008-5344, CVE-2008-5345, CVE-2008-5346,    CVE-2008-5340, CVE-2008-5341, CVE-2008-5343, and CVE-2008-5355.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has    assigned the following names to the security issues fixed in    JRE 1.5.0_18: CVE-2009-1093, CVE-2009-1094, CVE-2009-1095,    CVE-2009-1096, CVE-2009-1097, CVE-2009-1098, CVE-2009-1099,    CVE-2009-1100, CVE-2009-1101, CVE-2009-1102, CVE-2009-1103,    CVE-2009-1104, CVE-2009-1105, CVE-2009-1106, and CVE-2009-1107.

It was discovered that the Xen hypervisor block driver did not correctly validate requests. A user with root privileges in a guest OS could make a malicious IO request with a large number of blocks that would crash the host OS, leading to a denial of service. This only affected Ubuntu 7.10. (CVE-2007-5498)

It was discovered the the i915 video driver did not correctly validate memory addresses. A local attacker could exploit this to remap memory that could cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service. This issue did not affect Ubuntu 6.06 and was previous fixed for Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 in USN-659-1. Ubuntu 8.10 has now been corrected as well. (CVE-2008-3831)

David Watson discovered that the kernel did not correctly strip permissions when creating files in setgid directories. A local user could exploit this to gain additional group privileges. This issue only affected Ubuntu 6.06. (CVE-2008-4210)

Olaf Kirch and Miklos Szeredi discovered that the Linux kernel did not correctly reject the 'append' flag when handling file splice requests.
A local attacker could bypass append mode and make changes to arbitrary locations in a file. This issue only affected Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04. (CVE-2008-4554)

It was discovered that the SCTP stack did not correctly handle INIT-ACK. A remote user could exploit this by sending specially crafted SCTP traffic which would trigger a crash in the system, leading to a denial of service. This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10.
(CVE-2008-4576)

It was discovered that the SCTP stack did not correctly handle bad packet lengths. A remote user could exploit this by sending specially crafted SCTP traffic which would trigger a crash in the system, leading to a denial of service. This issue did not affect Ubuntu 8.10.
(CVE-2008-4618)

Eric Sesterhenn discovered multiple flaws in the HFS+ filesystem. If a local user or automated system were tricked into mounting a malicious HFS+ filesystem, the system could crash, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-4933, CVE-2008-4934, CVE-2008-5025)

It was discovered that the Unix Socket handler did not correctly process the SCM_RIGHTS message. A local attacker could make a malicious socket request that would crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-5029)

It was discovered that the driver for simple i2c audio interfaces did not correctly validate certain function pointers. A local user could exploit this to gain root privileges or crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-5033).

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 resolve several security issues and fix various bugs 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.

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

* a flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Direct-IO implementation.
This could have allowed a local unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6716, Important)

* when running ptrace in 31-bit mode on an IBM S/390 or IBM System z kernel, a local unprivileged user could cause a denial of service by reading from or writing into a padding area in the user_regs_struct32 structure. (CVE-2008-1514, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could have allowed a local unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, Important)

* Tobias Klein reported a missing check in the Linux kernel's Open Sound System (OSS) implementation. This deficiency could have led to an information leak. (CVE-2008-3272, Moderate)

* a potential denial of service attack was discovered in the Linux kernel's PWC USB video driver. A local unprivileged user could have used this flaw to bring the kernel USB subsystem into the busy-waiting state. (CVE-2007-5093, Low)

* the ext2 and ext3 file systems code failed to properly handle corrupted data structures, leading to a possible local denial of service issue when read or write operations were performed.
(CVE-2008-3528, Low)

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bugs :

* when using the CIFS 'forcedirectio' option, appending to an open file on a CIFS share resulted in that file being overwritten with the data to be appended.

* a kernel panic occurred when a device with PCI ID 8086:10c8 was present on a system with a loaded ixgbe driver.

* due to an aacraid driver regression, the kernel failed to boot when trying to load the aacraid driver and printed the following error message: 'aac_srb: aac_fib_send failed with status: 8195'.

* due to an mpt driver regression, when RAID 1 was configured on Primergy systems with an LSI SCSI IME 53C1020/1030 controller, the kernel panicked during boot.

* the mpt driver produced a large number of extraneous debugging messages when performing a 'Host reset' operation.

* due to a regression in the sym driver, the kernel panicked when a SCSI hot swap was performed using MCP18 hardware.

* all cores on a multi-core system now scale their frequencies in accordance with the policy set by the system's CPU frequency governor.

* the netdump subsystem suffered from several stability issues. These are addressed in this updated kernel.

* under certain conditions, the ext3 file system reported a negative count of used blocks.

* reading /proc/self/mem incorrectly returned 'Invalid argument' instead of 'input/output error' due to a regression.

* under certain conditions, the kernel panicked when a USB device was removed while the system was busy accessing the device.

* a race condition in the kernel could have led to a kernel crash during the creation of a new process.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

Updated kernel packages that fix a number of security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 running on 32-bit architectures.

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

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

These updated packages fix the following security issues :

* a flaw was found in the IPv4 forwarding base. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-2172, Important)

* a flaw was found in the handling of process death signals. This allowed a local, unprivileged user to send arbitrary signals to the suid-process executed by that user. Successful exploitation of this flaw depends on the structure of the suid-program and its signal handling. (CVE-2007-3848, Important)

* when accessing kernel memory locations, certain Linux kernel drivers registering a fault handler did not perform required range checks. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to gain read or write access to arbitrary kernel memory, or possibly cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-0007, Important)

* a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition (SIT) INET6 implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136, Important)

* missing capability checks were found in the SBNI WAN driver which could allow a local, unprivileged user to bypass intended capability restrictions. (CVE-2008-3525, Important)

* a flaw was found in the way files were written using truncate() or ftruncate(). This could allow a local, unprivileged user to acquire the privileges of a different group and obtain access to sensitive information. (CVE-2008-4210, Important)

* a race condition in the mincore system core allowed a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2006-4814, Moderate)

* a flaw was found in the aacraid SCSI driver. This allowed a local, unprivileged user to make ioctl calls to the driver which should otherwise be restricted to privileged users. (CVE-2007-4308, Moderate)

* two buffer overflow flaws were found in the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem. A local, unprivileged user could use these flaws to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6063, CVE-2007-6151, Moderate)

* a flaw was found in the way core dump files were created. If a local, unprivileged user could make a root-owned process dump a core file into a user-writable directory, the user could gain read access to that core file, potentially compromising sensitive information.
(CVE-2007-6206, Moderate)

* a deficiency was found in the Linux kernel virtual file system (VFS) implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to attempt file creation within deleted directories, possibly causing a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3275, Moderate)

All users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 on 32-bit architectures should upgrade to these updated packages which address these vulnerabilities. For this update to take effect, the system must be rebooted.

Updated kernel packages that resolve several security issues and fix various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.

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

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

This update addresses the following security issues :

* Tavis Ormandy discovered a deficiency in the Linux kernel 32-bit and 64-bit emulation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to prepare and run a specially crafted binary which would use this deficiency to leak uninitialized and potentially sensitive data.
(CVE-2008-0598, Important)

* a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux kernel Simple Internet Transition (SIT) INET6 implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136, Important)

* missing capability checks were found in the SBNI WAN driver which could allow a local user to bypass intended capability restrictions.
(CVE-2008-3525, Important)

* the do_truncate() and generic_file_splice_write() functions did not clear the setuid and setgid bits. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to obtain access to privileged information.
(CVE-2008-4210, Important)

* a buffer overflow flaw was found in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) subsystem. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6063, Moderate)

* multiple NULL pointer dereferences were found in various Linux kernel network drivers. These drivers were missing checks for terminal validity, which could allow privilege escalation. (CVE-2008-2812, Moderate)

* a deficiency was found in the Linux kernel virtual filesystem (VFS) implementation. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to attempt file creation within deleted directories, possibly causing a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3275, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* the incorrect kunmap function was used in nfs_xdr_readlinkres.
kunmap() was used where kunmap_atomic() should have been. As a consequence, if an NFSv2 or NFSv3 server exported a volume containing a symlink which included a path equal to or longer than the local system's PATH_MAX, accessing the link caused a kernel oops. This has been corrected in this update.

* mptctl_gettargetinfo did not check if pIoc3 was NULL before using it as a pointer. This caused a kernel panic in mptctl_gettargetinfo in some circumstances. A check has been added which prevents this.

* lost tick compensation code in the timer interrupt routine triggered without apparent cause. When running as a fully-virtualized client, this spurious triggering caused the 64-bit version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 to present highly inaccurate times. With this update the lost tick compensation code is turned off when the operating system is running as a fully-virtualized client under Xen or VMware(r).

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users should install this updated kernel which addresses these vulnerabilities and fixes these bugs.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2008:0972 advisory.

  - kernel PWC driver DoS (CVE-2007-5093)

  - kernel: dio: zero struct dio with kzalloc instead of manually (CVE-2007-6716)

  - kernel: ptrace: Padding area write - unprivileged kernel crash (CVE-2008-1514)

  - kernel snd_seq_oss_synth_make_info leak (CVE-2008-3272)

  - Linux kernel ext[234] directory corruption denial of service (CVE-2008-3528)

  - kernel: open() call allows setgid bit when user is not in new file's group (CVE-2008-4210)

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

This kernel update fixes various bugs and also several security issues :

CVE-2008-4576: Fixed a crash in SCTP INIT-ACK, on mismatch between SCTP AUTH availability. This might be exploited remotely for a denial of service (crash) attack.

CVE-2008-3833: The generic_file_splice_write function in fs/splice.c in the Linux kernel does not properly strip setuid and setgid bits when there is a write to a file, which allows local users to gain the privileges of a different group, and obtain sensitive information or possibly have unspecified other impact, by splicing into an inode in order to create an executable file in a setgid directory.

CVE-2008-4210: fs/open.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.22 does not properly strip setuid and setgid bits when there is a write to a file, which allows local users to gain the privileges of a different group, and obtain sensitive information or possibly have unspecified other impact, by creating an executable file in a setgid directory through the (1) truncate or (2) ftruncate function in conjunction with memory-mapped I/O.

CVE-2008-4302: fs/splice.c in the splice subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.22.2 does not properly handle a failure of the add_to_page_cache_lru function, and subsequently attempts to unlock a page that was not locked, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (kernel BUG and system crash), as demonstrated by the fio I/O tool.

CVE-2008-3528: The ext[234] filesystem code fails to properly handle corrupted data structures. With a mounted filesystem image or partition that have corrupted dir->i_size and dir->i_blocks, a user performing either a read or write operation on the mounted image or partition can lead to a possible denial of service by spamming the logfile.

CVE-2007-6716: fs/direct-io.c in the dio subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly zero out the dio struct, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (OOPS), as demonstrated by a certain fio test.

CVE-2008-3525: Added missing capability checks in sbni_ioctl().

CVE-2008-3272: Fixed range checking in the snd_seq OSS ioctl, which could be used to leak information from the kernel.

CVE-2008-2931: The do_change_type function in fs/namespace.c did not verify that the caller has the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability, which allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service by modifying the properties of a mountpoint.

CVE-2008-2812: Various NULL ptr checks have been added to tty op functions, which might have been used by local attackers to execute code. We think that this affects only devices openable by root, so the impact is limited.

CVE-2008-1673: Added range checking in ASN.1 handling for the CIFS and SNMP NAT netfilter modules.

CVE-2008-3527: arch/i386/kernel/sysenter.c in the Virtual Dynamic Shared Objects (vDSO) implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.21 did not properly check boundaries, which allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service via unspecified vectors, related to the install_special_mapping, syscall, and syscall32_nopage functions.

Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel that may lead to a denial of service or privilege escalation. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems :

  - CVE-2007-6716     Joe Jin reported a local denial of service vulnerability     that allows system users to trigger an oops due to an     improperly initialized data structure.

  - CVE-2008-1514     Jan Kratochvil reported a local denial of service     vulnerability in the ptrace interface for the s390     architecture. Local users can trigger an invalid pointer     dereference, leading to a system panic.

  - CVE-2008-3276     Eugene Teo reported an integer overflow in the DCCP     subsystem that may allow remote attackers to cause a     denial of service in the form of a kernel panic.

  - CVE-2008-3525     Eugene Teo reported a lack of capability checks in the     kernel driver for Granch SBNI12 leased line adapters     (sbni), allowing local users to perform privileged     operations.

  - CVE-2008-3833     The S_ISUID/S_ISGID bits were not being cleared during     an inode splice, which, under certain conditions, can be     exploited by local users to obtain the privileges of a     group for which they are not a member. Mark Fasheh     reported this issue.

  - CVE-2008-4210     David Watson reported an issue in the open()/creat()     system calls which, under certain conditions, can be     exploited by local users to obtain the privileges of a     group for which they are not a member.

  - CVE-2008-4302     A coding error in the splice subsystem allows local     users to attempt to unlock a page structure that has not     been locked, resulting in a system crash.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2008-0973.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2008-0972.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2008-0957.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
89116	VMware ESX / ESXi Multiple Vulnerabilities (VMSA-2009-0014) (remote check)	Nessus	Misc.	critical
67763	Oracle Linux 3 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0973)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67762	Oracle Linux 4 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0972)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
67758	Oracle Linux 5 : kernel (ELSA-2008-0957)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
60507	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL3.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	high
60497	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL4.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	medium
60488	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL5.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	high
59134	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux Kernel (x86_64) (ZYPP Patch Number 5735)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
59132	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux kernel (ZYPP Patch Number 5667)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
43713	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2008:0957)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
42179	VMSA-2009-0014 : VMware ESX patches for DHCP, Service Console kernel, and JRE resolve multiple security issues	Nessus	VMware ESX Local Security Checks	high
41535	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux kernel (ZYPP Patch Number 5668)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
37683	Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS / 8.10 : linux, linux-source-2.6.15/22 vulnerabilities (USN-679-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
37341	CentOS 4 : kernel (CESA-2008:0972)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	medium
35323	RHEL 2.1 : kernel (RHSA-2009:0001)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
35190	RHEL 3 : kernel (RHSA-2008:0973)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
35186	CentOS 3 : kernel (CESA-2008:0973)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
35026	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux Kernel (x86) (ZYPP Patch Number 5734)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
34841	RHEL 4 : kernel (RHSA-2008:0972)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
34755	openSUSE 10 Security Update : kernel (kernel-5751)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	critical
34690	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2008:0957)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
34392	Debian DSA-1653-1 : linux-2.6 - denial of service/privilege escalation	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
801460	CentOS RHSA-2008-0973 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high
801459	CentOS RHSA-2008-0972 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high
801458	CentOS RHSA-2008-0957 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2008-4210

high

Tenable Plugins

critical

high

medium

medium

high

medium

high

medium

high

high

high

high

high

medium

high

high

high

medium

medium

critical

high

high

high

high

high