The md driver (drivers/md/md.c) in the Linux kernel before 2.6.30.2 might allow local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference) via vectors related to "suspend_* sysfs attributes" and the (1) suspend_lo_store or (2) suspend_hi_store functions. NOTE: this is only a vulnerability when sysfs is writable by an attacker.

The remote VMware ESX host is missing a security-related patch. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities, including remote code execution vulnerabilities, in several third-party components and libraries :

  - bind
  - expat
  - glib2
  - Kernel
  - newt
  - nfs-utils
  - NTP
  - OpenSSH
  - OpenSSL

The remote OracleVM system is missing necessary patches to address critical security updates :

  - [security] require root for mmap_min_addr (Eric Paris)     [518142 518143] (CVE-2009-2695)

  - [md] prevent crash when accessing suspend_* sysfs attr     (Danny Feng) [518135 518136] (CVE-2009-2849)

  - [nfs] knfsd: fix NFSv4 O_EXCL creates (Jeff Layton)     [522163 524521] (CVE-2009-3286)

  - [fs] fix pipe null pointer dereference (Jeff Moyer)     [530938 530939] (CVE-2009-3547)

  - [net] r8169: balance pci_map/unmap pair, use hw padding     (Ivan Vecera) [529143 515857] (CVE-2009-3613)

  - [net] tc: fix uninitialized kernel memory leak (Jiri     Pirko) [520994 520863](CVE-2009-3228)

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2009:1550 :

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues and multiple 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.

Security fixes :

* when fput() was called to close a socket, the __scm_destroy() function in the Linux kernel could make indirect recursive calls to itself. This could, potentially, lead to a denial of service issue.
(CVE-2008-5029, Important)

* the sendmsg() function in the Linux kernel did not block during UNIX socket garbage collection. This could, potentially, lead to a local denial of service. (CVE-2008-5300, Important)

* the exit_notify() function in the Linux kernel did not properly reset the exit signal if a process executed a set user ID (setuid) application before exiting. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to elevate their privileges. (CVE-2009-1337, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Intel PRO/1000 network driver in the Linux kernel. Frames with sizes near the MTU of an interface may be split across multiple hardware receive descriptors. Receipt of such a frame could leak through a validation check, leading to a corruption of the length check. A remote attacker could use this flaw to send a specially crafted packet that would cause a denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1385, Important)

* the ADDR_COMPAT_LAYOUT and MMAP_PAGE_ZERO flags were not cleared when a setuid or setgid program was executed. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to bypass the mmap_min_addr protection mechanism and perform a NULL pointer dereference attack, or bypass the Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security feature.
(CVE-2009-1895, Important)

* it was discovered that, when executing a new process, the clear_child_tid pointer in the Linux kernel is not cleared. If this pointer points to a writable portion of the memory of the new program, the kernel could corrupt four bytes of memory, possibly leading to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-2848, Important)

* missing initialization flaws were found in getname() implementations in the IrDA sockets, AppleTalk DDP protocol, NET/ROM protocol, and ROSE protocol implementations in the Linux kernel. Certain data structures in these getname() implementations were not initialized properly before being copied to user-space. These flaws could lead to an information leak. (CVE-2009-3002, Important)

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in each of the following functions in the Linux kernel: pipe_read_open(), pipe_write_open(), and pipe_rdwr_open(). When the mutex lock is not held, the i_pipe pointer could be released by other processes before it is used to update the pipe's reader and writer counters. This could lead to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-3547, Important)

Bug fixes :

* this update adds the mmap_min_addr tunable and restriction checks to help prevent unprivileged users from creating new memory mappings below the minimum address. This can help prevent the exploitation of NULL pointer dereference bugs. Note that mmap_min_addr is set to zero (disabled) by default for backwards compatibility. (BZ#512642)

* a bridge reference count problem in IPv6 has been fixed. (BZ#457010)

* enforce null-termination of user-supplied arguments to setsockopt().
(BZ#505514)

* the gcc flag '-fno-delete-null-pointer-checks' was added to the kernel build options. This prevents gcc from optimizing out NULL pointer checks after the first use of a pointer. NULL pointer bugs are often exploited by attackers. Keeping these checks is a safety measure. (BZ#511185)

* a check has been added to the IPv4 code to make sure that rt is not NULL, to help prevent future bugs in functions that call ip_append_data() from being exploitable. (BZ#520300)

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.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2009:1548 :

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several 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.

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

Security fixes :

* a system with SELinux enforced was more permissive in allowing local users in the unconfined_t domain to map low memory areas even if the mmap_min_addr restriction was enabled. This could aid in the local exploitation of NULL pointer dereference bugs. (CVE-2009-2695, Important)

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the eCryptfs implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this flaw to cause a local denial of service or escalate their privileges.
(CVE-2009-2908, Important)

* a flaw was found in the NFSv4 implementation. The kernel would do an unnecessary permission check after creating a file. This check would usually fail and leave the file with the permission bits set to random values. Note: This is a server-side only issue. (CVE-2009-3286, Important)

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in each of the following functions in the Linux kernel: pipe_read_open(), pipe_write_open(), and pipe_rdwr_open(). When the mutex lock is not held, the i_pipe pointer could be released by other processes before it is used to update the pipe's reader and writer counters. This could lead to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-3547, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Realtek r8169 Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel. pci_unmap_single() presented a memory leak that could lead to IOMMU space exhaustion and a system crash. An attacker on the local network could abuse this flaw by using jumbo frames for large amounts of network traffic. (CVE-2009-3613, Important)

* missing initialization flaws were found in the Linux kernel. Padding data in several core network structures was not initialized properly before being sent to user-space. These flaws could lead to information leaks. (CVE-2009-3228, Moderate)

Bug fixes :

* with network bonding in the 'balance-tlb' or 'balance-alb' mode, the primary setting for the primary slave device was lost when said device was brought down. Bringing the slave back up did not restore the primary setting. (BZ#517971)

* some faulty serial device hardware caused systems running the kernel-xen kernel to take a very long time to boot. (BZ#524153)

* a caching bug in nfs_readdir() may have caused NFS clients to see duplicate files or not see all files in a directory. (BZ#526960)

* the RHSA-2009:1243 update removed the mpt_msi_enable option, preventing certain scripts from running. This update adds the option back. (BZ#526963)

* an iptables rule with the recent module and a hit count value greater than the ip_pkt_list_tot parameter (the default is 20), did not have any effect over packets, as the hit count could not be reached. (BZ#527434)

* a check has been added to the IPv4 code to make sure that rt is not NULL, to help prevent future bugs in functions that call ip_append_data() from being exploitable. (BZ#527436)

* a kernel panic occurred in certain conditions after reconfiguring a tape drive's block size. (BZ#528133)

* when using the Linux Virtual Server (LVS) in a master and backup configuration, and propagating active connections on the master to the backup, the connection timeout value on the backup was hard-coded to 180 seconds, meaning connection information on the backup was soon lost. This could prevent the successful failover of connections. The timeout value can now be set via 'ipvsadm --set'. (BZ#528645)

* a bug in nfs4_do_open_expired() could have caused the reclaimer thread on an NFSv4 client to enter an infinite loop. (BZ#529162)

* MSI interrupts may not have been delivered for r8169 based network cards that have MSI interrupts enabled. This bug only affected certain systems. (BZ#529366)

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.

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2009:1541 :

Updated kernel packages that fix 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.

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

This update fixes the following security issues :

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in each of the following functions in the Linux kernel: pipe_read_open(), pipe_write_open(), and pipe_rdwr_open(). When the mutex lock is not held, the i_pipe pointer could be released by other processes before it is used to update the pipe's reader and writer counters. This could lead to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-3547, Important)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ELSA-2009-1455 advisory.

    - Revert: [net] atalk/irda: memory leak to user in getname (Danny Feng ) [519309 519310] {CVE-2009-3001     CVE-2009-3002}
    - [net] atalk/irda: memory leak to user in getname (Danny Feng ) [519309 519310] {CVE-2009-3001     CVE-2009-3002}
    - [md] prevent crash when accessing suspend_* sysfs attr (Danny Feng ) [518135 518136] {CVE-2009-2849}

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

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

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues and multiple 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.

Security fixes :

* when fput() was called to close a socket, the __scm_destroy() function in the Linux kernel could make indirect recursive calls to itself. This could, potentially, lead to a denial of service issue.
(CVE-2008-5029, Important)

* the sendmsg() function in the Linux kernel did not block during UNIX socket garbage collection. This could, potentially, lead to a local denial of service. (CVE-2008-5300, Important)

* the exit_notify() function in the Linux kernel did not properly reset the exit signal if a process executed a set user ID (setuid) application before exiting. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to elevate their privileges. (CVE-2009-1337, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Intel PRO/1000 network driver in the Linux kernel. Frames with sizes near the MTU of an interface may be split across multiple hardware receive descriptors. Receipt of such a frame could leak through a validation check, leading to a corruption of the length check. A remote attacker could use this flaw to send a specially crafted packet that would cause a denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1385, Important)

* the ADDR_COMPAT_LAYOUT and MMAP_PAGE_ZERO flags were not cleared when a setuid or setgid program was executed. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to bypass the mmap_min_addr protection mechanism and perform a NULL pointer dereference attack, or bypass the Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security feature.
(CVE-2009-1895, Important)

* it was discovered that, when executing a new process, the clear_child_tid pointer in the Linux kernel is not cleared. If this pointer points to a writable portion of the memory of the new program, the kernel could corrupt four bytes of memory, possibly leading to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-2848, Important)

* missing initialization flaws were found in getname() implementations in the IrDA sockets, AppleTalk DDP protocol, NET/ROM protocol, and ROSE protocol implementations in the Linux kernel. Certain data structures in these getname() implementations were not initialized properly before being copied to user-space. These flaws could lead to an information leak. (CVE-2009-3002, Important)

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in each of the following functions in the Linux kernel: pipe_read_open(), pipe_write_open(), and pipe_rdwr_open(). When the mutex lock is not held, the i_pipe pointer could be released by other processes before it is used to update the pipe's reader and writer counters. This could lead to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-3547, Important)

Bug fixes :

* this update adds the mmap_min_addr tunable and restriction checks to help prevent unprivileged users from creating new memory mappings below the minimum address. This can help prevent the exploitation of NULL pointer dereference bugs. Note that mmap_min_addr is set to zero (disabled) by default for backwards compatibility. (BZ#512642)

* a bridge reference count problem in IPv6 has been fixed. (BZ#457010)

* enforce null-termination of user-supplied arguments to setsockopt().
(BZ#505514)

* the gcc flag '-fno-delete-null-pointer-checks' was added to the kernel build options. This prevents gcc from optimizing out NULL pointer checks after the first use of a pointer. NULL pointer bugs are often exploited by attackers. Keeping these checks is a safety measure. (BZ#511185)

* a check has been added to the IPv4 code to make sure that rt is not NULL, to help prevent future bugs in functions that call ip_append_data() from being exploitable. (BZ#520300)

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.

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several 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.

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

Security fixes :

* a system with SELinux enforced was more permissive in allowing local users in the unconfined_t domain to map low memory areas even if the mmap_min_addr restriction was enabled. This could aid in the local exploitation of NULL pointer dereference bugs. (CVE-2009-2695, Important)

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the eCryptfs implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this flaw to cause a local denial of service or escalate their privileges.
(CVE-2009-2908, Important)

* a flaw was found in the NFSv4 implementation. The kernel would do an unnecessary permission check after creating a file. This check would usually fail and leave the file with the permission bits set to random values. Note: This is a server-side only issue. (CVE-2009-3286, Important)

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in each of the following functions in the Linux kernel: pipe_read_open(), pipe_write_open(), and pipe_rdwr_open(). When the mutex lock is not held, the i_pipe pointer could be released by other processes before it is used to update the pipe's reader and writer counters. This could lead to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-3547, Important)

* a flaw was found in the Realtek r8169 Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel. pci_unmap_single() presented a memory leak that could lead to IOMMU space exhaustion and a system crash. An attacker on the local network could abuse this flaw by using jumbo frames for large amounts of network traffic. (CVE-2009-3613, Important)

* missing initialization flaws were found in the Linux kernel. Padding data in several core network structures was not initialized properly before being sent to user-space. These flaws could lead to information leaks. (CVE-2009-3228, Moderate)

Bug fixes :

* with network bonding in the 'balance-tlb' or 'balance-alb' mode, the primary setting for the primary slave device was lost when said device was brought down. Bringing the slave back up did not restore the primary setting. (BZ#517971)

* some faulty serial device hardware caused systems running the kernel-xen kernel to take a very long time to boot. (BZ#524153)

* a caching bug in nfs_readdir() may have caused NFS clients to see duplicate files or not see all files in a directory. (BZ#526960)

* the RHSA-2009:1243 update removed the mpt_msi_enable option, preventing certain scripts from running. This update adds the option back. (BZ#526963)

* an iptables rule with the recent module and a hit count value greater than the ip_pkt_list_tot parameter (the default is 20), did not have any effect over packets, as the hit count could not be reached. (BZ#527434)

* a check has been added to the IPv4 code to make sure that rt is not NULL, to help prevent future bugs in functions that call ip_append_data() from being exploitable. (BZ#527436)

* a kernel panic occurred in certain conditions after reconfiguring a tape drive's block size. (BZ#528133)

* when using the Linux Virtual Server (LVS) in a master and backup configuration, and propagating active connections on the master to the backup, the connection timeout value on the backup was hard-coded to 180 seconds, meaning connection information on the backup was soon lost. This could prevent the successful failover of connections. The timeout value can now be set via 'ipvsadm --set'. (BZ#528645)

* a bug in nfs4_do_open_expired() could have caused the reclaimer thread on an NFSv4 client to enter an infinite loop. (BZ#529162)

* MSI interrupts may not have been delivered for r8169 based network cards that have MSI interrupts enabled. This bug only affected certain systems. (BZ#529366)

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.

Updated kernel packages that fix 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.

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

This update fixes the following security issues :

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in each of the following functions in the Linux kernel: pipe_read_open(), pipe_write_open(), and pipe_rdwr_open(). When the mutex lock is not held, the i_pipe pointer could be released by other processes before it is used to update the pipe's reader and writer counters. This could lead to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-3547, Important)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a backported patch to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

a. vMA and Service Console update for newt to 0.52.2-12.el5_4.1

   Newt is a programming library for color text mode, widget based    user interfaces. Newt can be used to add stacked windows, entry    widgets, checkboxes, radio buttons, labels, plain text fields,    scrollbars, etc., to text mode user interfaces.

   A heap-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the way newt    processes content that is to be displayed in a text dialog box.
   A local attacker could issue a specially crafted text dialog box    display request (direct or via a custom application), leading to a    denial of service (application crash) or, potentially, arbitrary    code execution with the privileges of the user running the    application using the newt library.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-2905 to this issue.

b. vMA and Service Console update for vMA package nfs-utils to    1.0.9-42.el5

   The nfs-utils package provides a daemon for the kernel NFS server    and related tools.

   It was discovered that nfs-utils did not use tcp_wrappers    correctly.  Certain hosts access rules defined in '/etc/hosts.allow'    and '/etc/hosts.deny' may not have been honored, possibly allowing    remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2008-4552 to this issue.

c. vMA and Service Console package glib2 updated to 2.12.3-4.el5_3.1

   GLib is the low-level core library that forms the basis for    projects such as GTK+ and GNOME. It provides data structure    handling for C, portability wrappers, and interfaces for such    runtime functionality as an event loop, threads, dynamic loading,    and an object system.

   Multiple integer overflows in glib/gbase64.c in GLib before 2.20    allow context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via a    long string that is converted either from or to a base64    representation.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2008-4316 to this issue.

d. vMA and Service Console update for openssl to 0.9.8e-12.el5

   SSL is a toolkit implementing SSL v2/v3 and TLS protocols with full-    strength cryptography world-wide.

   Multiple denial of service flaws were discovered in OpenSSL's DTLS    implementation. A remote attacker could use these flaws to cause a    DTLS server to use excessive amounts of memory, or crash on an    invalid memory access or NULL pointer dereference.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the names CVE-2009-1377, CVE-2009-1378,    CVE-2009-1379, CVE-2009-1386, CVE-2009-1387 to these issues.

   An input validation flaw was found in the handling of the BMPString    and UniversalString ASN1 string types in OpenSSL's    ASN1_STRING_print_ex() function. An attacker could use this flaw to    create a specially crafted X.509 certificate that could cause    applications using the affected function to crash when printing    certificate contents.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-0590 to this issue.

e. vMA and Service Console package bind updated to 9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.1

   It was discovered that BIND was incorrectly caching responses    without performing proper DNSSEC validation, when those responses    were received during the resolution of a recursive client query    that requested DNSSEC records but indicated that checking should be    disabled. A remote attacker could use this flaw to bypass the DNSSEC    validation check and perform a cache poisoning attack if the target    BIND server was receiving such client queries.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-4022 to this issue.

f. vMA and Service Console package expat updated to 1.95.8-8.3.el5_4.2.

   Two buffer over-read flaws were found in the way Expat handled    malformed UTF-8 sequences when processing XML files. A specially-    crafted XML file could cause applications using Expat to fail while    parsing the file.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the names CVE-2009-3560 and CVE-2009-3720 to these    issues.

g. vMA and Service Console package openssh update to 4.3p2-36.el5_4.2

   A Red Hat specific patch used in the openssh packages as shipped in    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 (RHSA-2009:1287) loosened certain    ownership requirements for directories used as arguments for the    ChrootDirectory configuration options. A malicious user that also    has or previously had non-chroot shell access to a system could    possibly use this flaw to escalate their privileges and run    commands as any system user.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-2904 to this issue.

h. vMA and Service Console package ntp updated to    ntp-4.2.2p1-9.el5_4.1.i386.rpm

   A flaw was discovered in the way ntpd handled certain malformed NTP    packets. ntpd logged information about all such packets and replied    with an NTP packet that was treated as malformed when received by    another ntpd. A remote attacker could use this flaw to create an NTP    packet reply loop between two ntpd servers through a malformed packet    with a spoofed source IP address and port, causing ntpd on those    servers to use excessive amounts of CPU time and fill disk space with    log messages.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-3563 to this issue.   

i. vMA update for package kernel to 2.6.18-164.9.1.el5

   Updated vMA package kernel addresses the security issues listed    below.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the name CVE-2009-2849 to the security issue fixed in    kernel 2.6.18-128.2.1

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the names CVE-2009-2695, CVE-2009-2908, CVE-2009-3228,    CVE-2009-3286, CVE-2009-3547, CVE-2009-3613 to the security issues    fixed in kernel 2.6.18-128.6.1

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the names CVE-2009-3612, CVE-2009-3620, CVE-2009-3621,    CVE-2009-3726 to the security issues fixed in kernel    2.6.18-128.9.1

j. vMA 4.0 updates for the packages kpartx, libvolume-id,    device-mapper-multipath, fipscheck, dbus, dbus-libs, and ed

   kpartx updated to 0.4.7-23.el5_3.4, libvolume-id updated to    095-14.20.el5 device-mapper-multipath package updated to    0.4.7-23.el5_3.4, fipscheck updated to 1.0.3-1.el5, dbus    updated to 1.1.2-12.el5, dbus-libs updated to 1.1.2-12.el5,    and ed package updated to 0.2-39.el5_2.

   The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Project (cve.mitre.org)    has assigned the names CVE-2008-3916, CVE-2009-1189 and    CVE-2009-0115 to these issues.

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

  - CVE-2009-2846     Michael Buesch noticed a typing issue in the eisa-eeprom     driver for the hppa architecture. Local users could     exploit this issue to gain access to restricted memory.

  - CVE-2009-2847     Ulrich Drepper noticed an issue in the do_sigalstack     routine on 64-bit systems. This issue allows local users     to gain access to potentially sensitive memory on the     kernel stack.

  - CVE-2009-2848     Eric Dumazet discovered an issue in the execve path,     where the clear_child_tid variable was not being     properly cleared. Local users could exploit this issue     to cause a denial of service (memory corruption).

  - CVE-2009-2849     Neil Brown discovered an issue in the sysfs interface to     md devices. When md arrays are not active, local users     can exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of     service (oops).

  - CVE-2009-2903     Mark Smith discovered a memory leak in the appletalk     implementation. When the appletalk and ipddp modules are     loaded, but no ipddp'N' device is found, remote     attackers can cause a denial of service by consuming     large amounts of system memory.

  - CVE-2009-2908     Loic Minier discovered an issue in the eCryptfs     filesystem. A local user can cause a denial of service     (kernel oops) by causing a dentry value to go negative.

  - CVE-2009-2909     Arjan van de Ven discovered an issue in the AX.25     protocol implementation. A specially crafted call to     setsockopt() can result in a denial of service (kernel     oops).

  - CVE-2009-2910     Jan Beulich discovered the existence of a sensitive     kernel memory leak. Systems running the 'amd64' kernel     do not properly sanitize registers for 32-bit processes.

  - CVE-2009-3001     Jiri Slaby fixed a sensitive memory leak issue in the     ANSI/IEEE 802.2 LLC implementation. This is not     exploitable in the Debian lenny kernel as root     privileges are required to exploit this issue.

  - CVE-2009-3002     Eric Dumazet fixed several sensitive memory leaks in the     IrDA, X.25 PLP (Rose), NET/ROM, Acorn Econet/AUN, and     Controller Area Network (CAN) implementations. Local     users can exploit these issues to gain access to kernel     memory.

  - CVE-2009-3228     Eric Dumazet reported an instance of uninitialized     kernel memory in the network packet scheduler. Local     users may be able to exploit this issue to read the     contents of sensitive kernel memory.

  - CVE-2009-3238     Linus Torvalds provided a change to the get_random_int()     function to increase its randomness.

  - CVE-2009-3286     Eric Paris discovered an issue with the NFSv4 server     implementation. When an O_EXCL create fails, files may     be left with corrupted permissions, possibly granting     unintentional privileges to other local users.

  - CVE-2009-3547     Earl Chew discovered a NULL pointer dereference issue in     the pipe_rdwr_open function which can be used by local     users to gain elevated privileges.

  - CVE-2009-3612     Jiri Pirko discovered a typo in the initialization of a     structure in the netlink subsystem that may allow local     users to gain access to sensitive kernel memory.

  - CVE-2009-3613     Alistair Strachan reported an issue in the r8169 driver.
    Remote users can cause a denial of service (IOMMU space     exhaustion and system crash) by transmitting a large     amount of jumbo frames.

  - CVE-2009-3620     Ben Hutchings discovered an issue in the DRM manager for     ATI Rage 128 graphics adapters. Local users may be able     to exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of     service (NULL pointer dereference).

  - CVE-2009-3621     Tomoki Sekiyama discovered a deadlock condition in the     UNIX domain socket implementation. Local users can     exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of service     (system hang).

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

  - CVE-2009-2698     Herbert Xu discovered an issue in the way UDP tracks     corking status that could allow local users to cause a     denial of service (system crash). Tavis Ormandy and     Julien Tinnes discovered that this issue could also be     used by local users to gain elevated privileges.

  - CVE-2009-2846     Michael Buesch noticed a typing issue in the eisa-eeprom     driver for the hppa architecture. Local users could     exploit this issue to gain access to restricted memory.

  - CVE-2009-2847     Ulrich Drepper noticed an issue in the do_sigalstack     routine on 64-bit systems. This issue allows local users     to gain access to potentially sensitive memory on the     kernel stack.

  - CVE-2009-2848     Eric Dumazet discovered an issue in the execve path,     where the clear_child_tid variable was not being     properly cleared. Local users could exploit this issue     to cause a denial of service (memory corruption).

  - CVE-2009-2849     Neil Brown discovered an issue in the sysfs interface to     md devices. When md arrays are not active, local users     can exploit this vulnerability to cause a denial of     service (oops).

Updated kernel packages that fix one security issue and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

[Updated 23rd February 2010] This update adds references to two KBase articles that includes greater detail regarding some bug fixes that could not be fully documented in the errata note properly.

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

Security fix :

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the Multiple Devices (md) driver in the Linux kernel. If the 'suspend_lo' or 'suspend_hi' file on the sysfs file system ('/sys/') is modified when the disk array is inactive, it could lead to a local denial of service or privilege escalation. Note: By default, only the root user can write to the files noted above. (CVE-2009-2849, Moderate)

Bug fixes :

* a bug in nlm_lookup_host() could lead to un-reclaimed file system locks, resulting in umount failing & NFS service relocation issues for clusters. (BZ#517967)

* a bug in the sky2 driver prevented the phy from being reset properly on some hardware when it hung, preventing a link from coming back up.
(BZ#517976)

* disabling MSI-X for qla2xxx also disabled MSI interrupts.
(BZ#519782)

* performance issues with reads when using the qlge driver on PowerPC systems. A system hang could also occur during reboot. (BZ#519783)

* unreliable time keeping for Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machines. The KVM pvclock code is now used to detect/correct lost ticks. (BZ#520685)

* /proc/cpuinfo was missing flags for new features in supported processors, possibly preventing the operating system & applications from getting the best performance. (BZ#520686)

* reading/writing with a serial loopback device on a certain IBM system did not work unless booted with 'pnpacpi=off'. (BZ#520905)

* mlx4_core failed to load on systems with more than 32 CPUs.
(BZ#520906)

* on big-endian platforms, interfaces using the mlx4_en driver & Large Receive Offload (LRO) did not handle VLAN traffic properly (a segmentation fault in the VLAN stack in the kernel occurred).
(BZ#520908)

* due to a lock being held for a long time, some systems may have experienced 'BUG: soft lockup' messages under heavy load. (BZ#520919)

* incorrect APIC timer calibration may have caused a system hang during boot, as well as the system time becoming faster or slower. A warning is now provided. (BZ#521238)

* a Fibre Channel device re-scan via 'echo '---' > /sys/class/scsi_host/ host[x]/scan' may not complete after hot adding a drive, leading to soft lockups ('BUG: soft lockup detected').
(BZ#521239)

* the Broadcom BCM5761 network device could not to be initialized properly; therefore, the associated interface could not obtain an IP address via DHCP or be assigned one manually. (BZ#521241)

* when a process attempted to read from a page that had first been accessed by writing to part of it (via write(2)), the NFS client needed to flush the modified portion of the page out to the server, & then read the entire page back in. This flush caused performance issues. (BZ#521244)

* a kernel panic when using bnx2x devices & LRO in a bridge. A warning is now provided to disable LRO in these situations. (BZ#522636)

* the scsi_dh_rdac driver was updated to recognize the Sun StorageTek Flexline 380. (BZ#523237)

* in FIPS mode, random number generators are required to not return the first block of random data they generate, but rather save it to seed the repetition check. This update brings the random number generator into conformance. (BZ#523289)

* an option to disable/enable the use of the first random block is now provided to bring ansi_cprng into compliance with FIPS-140 continuous test requirements. (BZ#523290)

* running the SAP Linux Certification Suite in a KVM guest caused severe SAP kernel errors, causing it to exit. (BZ#524150)

* attempting to 'online' a CPU for a KVM guest via sysfs caused a system crash. (BZ#524151)

* when using KVM, pvclock returned bogus wallclock values. (BZ#524152)

* the clock could go backwards when using the vsyscall infrastructure.
(BZ#524527)

See References for KBase links re BZ#519782 & BZ#520906.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. Reboot the system for this update to take effect.

Solar Designer discovered that the z90crypt driver did not correctly check capabilities. A local attacker could exploit this to shut down the device, leading to a denial of service. Only affected Ubuntu 6.06.
(CVE-2009-1883)

Michael Buesch discovered that the SGI GRU driver did not correctly check the length when setting options. A local attacker could exploit this to write to the kernel stack, leading to root privilege escalation or a denial of service. Only affected Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04.
(CVE-2009-2584)

It was discovered that SELinux did not fully implement the mmap_min_addr restrictions. A local attacker could exploit this to allocate the NULL memory page which could lead to further attacks against kernel NULL-dereference vulnerabilities. Ubuntu 6.06 was not affected. (CVE-2009-2695)

Cagri Coltekin discovered that the UDP stack did not correctly handle certain flags. A local user could send specially crafted commands and traffic to gain root privileges or crash the systeam, leading to a denial of service. Only affected Ubuntu 6.06. (CVE-2009-2698)

Hiroshi Shimamoto discovered that monotonic timers did not correctly validate parameters. A local user could make a specially crafted timer request to gain root privileges or crash the system, leading to a denial of service. Only affected Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-2767)

Michael Buesch discovered that the HPPA ISA EEPROM driver did not correctly validate positions. A local user could make a specially crafted request to gain root privileges or crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-2846)

Ulrich Drepper discovered that kernel signal stacks were not being correctly padded on 64-bit systems. A local attacker could send specially crafted calls to expose 4 bytes of kernel stack memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-2847)

Jens Rosenboom discovered that the clone method did not correctly clear certain fields. A local attacker could exploit this to gain privileges or crash the system, leading to a denial of service.
(CVE-2009-2848)

It was discovered that the MD driver did not check certain sysfs files. A local attacker with write access to /sys could exploit this to cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 6.06 was not affected. (CVE-2009-2849)

Mark Smith discovered that the AppleTalk stack did not correctly manage memory. A remote attacker could send specially crafted traffic to cause the system to consume all available memory, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-2903)

Loic Minier discovered that eCryptfs did not correctly handle writing to certain deleted files. A local attacker could exploit this to gain root privileges or crash the system, leading to a denial of service.
Ubuntu 6.06 was not affected. (CVE-2009-2908)

It was discovered that the LLC, AppleTalk, IR, EConet, Netrom, and ROSE network stacks did not correctly initialize their data structures. A local attacker could make specially crafted calls to read kernel memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-3001, CVE-2009-3002)

It was discovered that the randomization used for Address Space Layout Randomization was predictable within a small window of time. A local attacker could exploit this to leverage further attacks that require knowledge of userspace memory layouts. (CVE-2009-3238)

Eric Paris discovered that NFSv4 did not correctly handle file creation failures. An attacker with write access to an NFSv4 share could exploit this to create files with arbitrary mode bits, leading to privilege escalation or a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-3286)

Bob Tracy discovered that the SCSI generic driver did not correctly use the right index for array access. A local attacker with write access to a CDR could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. Only Ubuntu 9.04 was affected. (CVE-2009-3288)

Jan Kiszka discovered that KVM did not correctly validate certain hypercalls. A local unprivileged attacker in a virtual guest could exploit this to crash the guest kernel, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 6.06 was not affected. (CVE-2009-3290).

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.

Security fixes: - CVE-2009-2691: Information disclosure in proc filesystem - CVE-2009-2848: execve: must clear current->child_tid - CVE-2009-2849: md: NULL pointer dereference - CVE-2009-2847:
Information leak in do_sigaltstack Restore missing LIRC drivers, dropped in previous release. Backport upstream fixes that further improve the security of mmap of low addresses. (CVE-2009-2695)

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

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2009-1455.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
89737	VMware ESX Third-Party Libraries Multiple Vulnerabilities (VMSA-2010-0004) (remote check)	Nessus	VMware ESX Local Security Checks	high
79470	OracleVM 2.2 : kernel (OVMSA-2009-0033)	Nessus	OracleVM Local Security Checks	high
67955	Oracle Linux 3 : kernel (ELSA-2009-1550)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67953	Oracle Linux 5 : kernel (ELSA-2009-1548)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67952	Oracle Linux 4 : kernel (ELSA-2009-1541)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67929	Oracle Linux 5 : kernel (ELSA-2009-1455)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
67070	CentOS 3 : kernel (CESA-2009:1550)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
67068	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2009:1548)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
67067	CentOS 4 : kernel (CESA-2009:1541)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
44993	VMSA-2010-0004 : ESX Service Console and vMA third-party updates	Nessus	VMware ESX Local Security Checks	high
44793	Debian DSA-1928-1 : linux-2.6.24 - privilege escalation/denial of service/sensitive memory leak	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
44737	Debian DSA-1872-1 : linux-2.6 - denial of service/privilege escalation/information leak	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
43794	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2009:1455)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	medium
42360	RHEL 3 : kernel (RHSA-2009:1550)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
42358	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2009:1548)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
42209	Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 8.04 LTS / 8.10 / 9.04 : linux, linux-source-2.6.15 vulnerabilities (USN-852-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	high
41942	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2009:1455)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
40780	Fedora 11 : kernel-2.6.29.6-217.2.16.fc11 (2009-9044)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	high
801477	CentOS RHSA-2009-1455 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2009-2849

medium

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high

medium

high

high

high

high

high

high

medium

high

high

high

medium

high

high