The get_random_int function in drivers/char/random.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.30 produces insufficiently random numbers, which allows attackers to predict the return value, and possibly defeat protection mechanisms based on randomization, via vectors that leverage the function's tendency to "return the same value over and over again for long stretches of time."

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2009:1438 :

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues and several 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.

This update fixes the following security issues :

* 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)

* Solar Designer reported a missing capability check in the z90crypt driver in the Linux kernel. This missing check could allow a local user with an effective user ID (euid) of 0 to bypass intended capability restrictions. (CVE-2009-1883, Moderate)

* a flaw was found in the way the do_sigaltstack() function in the Linux kernel copies the stack_t structure to user-space. On 64-bit machines, this flaw could lead to a four-byte information leak.
(CVE-2009-2847, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* 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#517964)

* the Emulex LPFC driver has been updated to version 8.0.16.47, which fixes a memory leak that caused memory allocation failures and system hangs. (BZ#513192)

* an error in the MPT Fusion driver makefile caused CSMI ioctls to not work with Serial Attached SCSI devices. (BZ#516184)

* 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 deference bugs. Note that mmap_min_addr is set to zero (disabled) by default for backwards compatibility. (BZ#517904)

* time-outs resulted in I/O errors being logged to '/var/log/messages' when running 'mt erase' on tape drives using certain LSI MegaRAID SAS adapters, preventing the command from completing. The megaraid_sas driver's timeout value is now set to the OS layer value. (BZ#517965)

* a locking issue caused the qla2xxx ioctl module to hang after encountering errors. This locking issue has been corrected. This ioctl module is used by the QLogic SAN management tools, such as SANsurfer and scli. (BZ#519428)

* when a RAID 1 array that uses the mptscsi driver and the LSI 1030 controller became degraded, the whole array was detected as being offline, which could cause kernel panics at boot or data loss.
(BZ#517295)

* on 32-bit architectures, if a file was held open and frequently written for more than 25 days, it was possible that the kernel would stop flushing those writes to storage. (BZ#515255)

* a memory allocation bug in ib_mthca prevented the driver from loading if it was loaded with large values for the 'num_mpt=' and 'num_mtt=' options. (BZ#518707)

* with this update, get_random_int() is more random and no longer uses a common seed value, reducing the possibility of predicting the values returned. (BZ#519692)

* a bug in __ptrace_unlink() caused it to create deadlocked and unkillable processes. (BZ#519446)

* previously, multiple threads using the fcntl() F_SETLK command to synchronize file access caused a deadlock in posix_locks_deadlock().
This could cause a system hang. (BZ#519429)

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.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2009-1106 advisory.

    - [nfs] v4: client handling of MAY_EXEC in nfs_permission (Peter Staubach ) [500301 500302]     {CVE-2009-1630}
    - [fs] cifs: fix pointer and checks in cifs_follow_symlink (Jeff Layton ) [496576 496577] {CVE-2009-1633}
    - [fs] cifs: fix error handling in parse_DFS_referrals (Jeff Layton ) [496576 496577] {CVE-2009-1633}
    - [fs] cifs: buffer overruns when converting strings (Jeff Layton ) [496576 496577] {CVE-2009-1633}
    - [fs] cifs: unicode alignment and buffer sizing problems (Jeff Layton ) [494279 494280] {CVE-2009-1439}
    - [x86] xen: fix local denial of service (Chris Lalancette ) [500950 500951] {CVE-2009-1758}
    - [misc] add some long-missing capabilities to CAP_FS_MASK (Eric Paris ) [499075 497271 499076 497272]     {CVE-2009-1072}
    - [agp] zero pages before sending to userspace (Jiri Olsa ) [497025 497026] {CVE-2009-1192}

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 fixes various bugs and some security issues in the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP 3 kernel.

The following security issues were fixed: CVE-2009-3238: The get_random_int function in drivers/char/random.c in the Linux kernel produces insufficiently random numbers, which allows attackers to predict the return value, and possibly defeat protection mechanisms based on randomization, via vectors that leverage the functions tendency to return the same value over and over again for long stretches of time.

  - The (1) agp_generic_alloc_page and (2)     agp_generic_alloc_pages functions in     drivers/char/agp/generic.c in the agp subsystem in the     Linux kernel do not zero out pages that may later be     available to a user-space process, which allows local     users to obtain sensitive information by reading these     pages. (CVE-2009-1192)

  - Unsigned check in the ax25 socket handler could allow     local attackers to potentially crash the kernel or even     execute code. (CVE-2009-2909)

This update fixes a several security issues and various bugs in the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP 2 kernel.

The following security issues were fixed: CVE-2009-3547: A race condition during pipe open could be used by local attackers to elevate privileges.

  - On x86_64 systems a information leak of high register     contents (upper 32bit) was fixed. (CVE-2009-2910)

  - The randomness of the ASLR methods used in the kernel     was increased. (CVE-2009-3238)

  - A information leak from the kernel due to uninitialized     memory in AGP handling was fixed. (CVE-2009-1192)

  - A signed comparison in the ax25 sockopt handler was     fixed which could be used to crash the kernel or     potentially execute code. (CVE-2009-2909)

  - The execve function in the Linux kernel did not properly     clear the current->clear_child_tid pointer, which allows     local users to cause a denial of service (memory     corruption) or possibly gain privileges via a clone     system call with CLONE_CHILD_SETTID or     CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID enabled, which is not properly     handled during thread creation and exit. (CVE-2009-2848)

  - Fixed various sockethandler getname leaks, which could     disclose memory previously used by the kernel or other     userland processes to the local attacker.
    (CVE-2009-3002)

  - Multiple buffer overflows in the cifs subsystem in the     Linux kernel allow remote CIFS servers to cause a denial     of service (memory corruption) and possibly have     unspecified other impact via (1) a malformed Unicode     string, related to Unicode string area alignment in     fs/cifs/sess.c; or (2) long Unicode characters, related     to fs/cifs/cifssmb.c and the cifs_readdir function in     fs/cifs/readdir.c. (CVE-2009-1633)

Also see the RPM changelog for more changes.

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-2009-1883     Solar Designer discovered a missing capability check in     the z90crypt driver or s390 systems. This vulnerability     may allow a local user to gain elevated privileges.

  - 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-2009-3001     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-2009-3621     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 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).

Notice: Debian 5.0.4, the next point release of Debian 'lenny', will include a new default value for the mmap_min_addr tunable. This change will add an additional safeguard against a class of security vulnerabilities known as 'NULL pointer dereference' vulnerabilities, but it will need to be overridden when using certain applications.
Additional information about this change, including instructions for making this change locally in advance of 5.0.4 (recommended), can be found at: https://wiki.debian.org/mmap_min_addr.

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-2009-3228     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-2009-3547     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-2009-3620     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).

  - CVE-2009-3638     David Wagner reported an overflow in the KVM subsystem     on i386 systems. This issue is exploitable by local     users with access to the /dev/kvm device file.

This kernel update for openSUSE 11.0 fixes some bugs and several security problems.

The following security issues are fixed: CVE-2009-4536:
drivers/net/e1000/e1000_main.c in the e1000 driver in the Linux kernel handles Ethernet frames that exceed the MTU by processing certain trailing payload data as if it were a complete frame, which allows remote attackers to bypass packet filters via a large packet with a crafted payload.

CVE-2009-4538: drivers/net/e1000e/netdev.c in the e1000e driver in the Linux kernel does not properly check the size of an Ethernet frame that exceeds the MTU, which allows remote attackers to have an unspecified impact via crafted packets.

CVE-2010-0007: Missing CAP_NET_ADMIN checks in the ebtables netfilter code might have allowed local attackers to modify bridge firewall settings.

CVE-2010-0003: An information leakage on fatal signals on x86_64 machines was fixed.

CVE-2009-4138: drivers/firewire/ohci.c in the Linux kernel, when packet-per-buffer mode is used, allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly have unknown other impact via an unspecified ioctl associated with receiving an ISO packet that contains zero in the payload-length field.

CVE-2009-4308: The ext4_decode_error function in fs/ext4/super.c in the ext4 filesystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.32 allows user-assisted remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference), and possibly have unspecified other impact, via a crafted read-only filesystem that lacks a journal.

CVE-2009-3939: The poll_mode_io file for the megaraid_sas driver in the Linux kernel 2.6.31.6 and earlier has world-writable permissions, which allows local users to change the I/O mode of the driver by modifying this file.

CVE-2009-4021: The fuse_direct_io function in fs/fuse/file.c in the fuse subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.32-rc7 might allow attackers to cause a denial of service (invalid pointer dereference and OOPS) via vectors possibly related to a memory-consumption attack.

CVE-2009-3547: A race condition in the pipe(2) systemcall could be used by local attackers to hang the machine. The kernel in Moblin 2.0 uses NULL ptr protection which avoids code execution possbilities.

CVE-2009-2903: Memory leak in the appletalk subsystem in the Linux kernel 2.4.x through 2.4.37.6 and 2.6.x through 2.6.31, when the appletalk and ipddp modules are loaded but the ipddp'N' device is not found, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via IP-DDP datagrams.

CVE-2009-3621: net/unix/af_unix.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.31.4 and earlier allows local users to cause a denial of service (system hang) by creating an abstract-namespace AF_UNIX listening socket, performing a shutdown operation on this socket, and then performing a series of connect operations to this socket.

CVE-2009-3612: The tcf_fill_node function in net/sched/cls_api.c in the netlink subsystem in the Linux kernel 2.6.x before 2.6.32-rc5, and 2.4.37.6 and earlier, does not initialize a certain tcm__pad2 structure member, which might allow local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel memory via unspecified vectors.

CVE-2009-3620: The ATI Rage 128 (aka r128) driver in the Linux kernel before 2.6.31-git11 does not properly verify Concurrent Command Engine (CCE) state initialization, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly gain privileges via unspecified ioctl calls.

CVE-2009-3726: The nfs4_proc_lock function in fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c in the NFSv4 client in the Linux kernel before 2.6.31-rc4 allows remote NFS servers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and panic) by sending a certain response containing incorrect file attributes, which trigger attempted use of an open file that lacks NFSv4 state.

CVE-2009-3286: NFSv4 in the Linux kernel 2.6.18, and possibly other versions, does not properly clean up an inode when an O_EXCL create fails, which causes files to be created with insecure settings such as setuid bits, and possibly allows local users to gain privileges, related to the execution of the do_open_permission function even when a create fails.

CVE-2009-2910: arch/x86/ia32/ia32entry.S in the Linux kernel before 2.6.31.4 on the x86_64 platform does not clear certain kernel registers before a return to user mode, which allows local users to read register values from an earlier process by switching an ia32 process to 64-bit mode.

CVE-2009-3238: The get_random_int function in drivers/char/random.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.30 produces insufficiently random numbers, which allows attackers to predict the return value, and possibly defeat protection mechanisms based on randomization, via vectors that leverage the function's tendency to 'return the same value over and over again for long stretches of time.'

CVE-2009-2848: The execve function in the Linux kernel, possibly 2.6.30-rc6 and earlier, does not properly clear the current->clear_child_tid pointer, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) or possibly gain privileges via a clone system call with CLONE_CHILD_SETTID or CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID enabled, which is not properly handled during thread creation and exit.

CVE-2009-3002: The Linux kernel before 2.6.31-rc7 does not initialize certain data structures within getname functions, which allows local users to read the contents of some kernel memory locations by calling getsockname on (1) an AF_APPLETALK socket, related to the atalk_getname function in net/appletalk/ddp.c; (2) an AF_IRDA socket, related to the irda_getname function in net/irda/af_irda.c; (3) an AF_ECONET socket, related to the econet_getname function in net/econet/af_econet.c; (4) an AF_NETROM socket, related to the nr_getname function in net/netrom/af_netrom.c; (5) an AF_ROSE socket, related to the rose_getname function in net/rose/af_rose.c; or (6) a raw CAN socket, related to the raw_getname function in net/can/raw.c.

CVE-2009-1633: Multiple buffer overflows in the cifs subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.29.4 allow remote CIFS servers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) and possibly have unspecified other impact via (1) a malformed Unicode string, related to Unicode string area alignment in fs/cifs/sess.c; or (2) long Unicode characters, related to fs/cifs/cifssmb.c and the cifs_readdir function in fs/cifs/readdir.c.

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues and several 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.

This update fixes the following security issues :

* 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)

* Solar Designer reported a missing capability check in the z90crypt driver in the Linux kernel. This missing check could allow a local user with an effective user ID (euid) of 0 to bypass intended capability restrictions. (CVE-2009-1883, Moderate)

* a flaw was found in the way the do_sigaltstack() function in the Linux kernel copies the stack_t structure to user-space. On 64-bit machines, this flaw could lead to a four-byte information leak.
(CVE-2009-2847, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* 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#517964)

* the Emulex LPFC driver has been updated to version 8.0.16.47, which fixes a memory leak that caused memory allocation failures and system hangs. (BZ#513192)

* an error in the MPT Fusion driver makefile caused CSMI ioctls to not work with Serial Attached SCSI devices. (BZ#516184)

* 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 deference bugs. Note that mmap_min_addr is set to zero (disabled) by default for backwards compatibility. (BZ#517904)

* time-outs resulted in I/O errors being logged to '/var/log/messages' when running 'mt erase' on tape drives using certain LSI MegaRAID SAS adapters, preventing the command from completing. The megaraid_sas driver's timeout value is now set to the OS layer value. (BZ#517965)

* a locking issue caused the qla2xxx ioctl module to hang after encountering errors. This locking issue has been corrected. This ioctl module is used by the QLogic SAN management tools, such as SANsurfer and scli. (BZ#519428)

* when a RAID 1 array that uses the mptscsi driver and the LSI 1030 controller became degraded, the whole array was detected as being offline, which could cause kernel panics at boot or data loss.
(BZ#517295)

* on 32-bit architectures, if a file was held open and frequently written for more than 25 days, it was possible that the kernel would stop flushing those writes to storage. (BZ#515255)

* a memory allocation bug in ib_mthca prevented the driver from loading if it was loaded with large values for the 'num_mpt=' and 'num_mtt=' options. (BZ#518707)

* with this update, get_random_int() is more random and no longer uses a common seed value, reducing the possibility of predicting the values returned. (BZ#519692)

* a bug in __ptrace_unlink() caused it to create deadlocked and unkillable processes. (BZ#519446)

* previously, multiple threads using the fcntl() F_SETLK command to synchronize file access caused a deadlock in posix_locks_deadlock().
This could cause a system hang. (BZ#519429)

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 several 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 :

* several flaws were found in the way the Linux kernel CIFS implementation handles Unicode strings. CIFS clients convert Unicode strings sent by a server to their local character sets, and then write those strings into memory. If a malicious server sent a long enough string, it could write past the end of the target memory region and corrupt other memory areas, possibly leading to a denial of service or privilege escalation on the client mounting the CIFS share.
(CVE-2009-1439, CVE-2009-1633, Important)

* the Linux kernel Network File System daemon (nfsd) implementation did not drop the CAP_MKNOD capability when handling requests from local, unprivileged users. This flaw could possibly lead to an information leak or privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-1072, Moderate)

* Frank Filz reported the NFSv4 client was missing a file permission check for the execute bit in some situations. This could allow local, unprivileged users to run non-executable files on NFSv4 mounted file systems. (CVE-2009-1630, Moderate)

* a missing check was found in the hypervisor_callback() function in the Linux kernel provided by the kernel-xen package. This could cause a denial of service of a 32-bit guest if an application running in that guest accesses a certain memory location in the kernel.
(CVE-2009-1758, Moderate)

* a flaw was found in the AGPGART driver. The agp_generic_alloc_page() and agp_generic_alloc_pages() functions did not zero out the memory pages they allocate, which may later be available to user-space processes. This flaw could possibly lead to an information leak.
(CVE-2009-1192, Low)

Bug fixes :

* a race in the NFS client between destroying cached access rights and unmounting an NFS file system could have caused a system crash. 'Busy inodes' messages may have been logged. (BZ#498653)

* nanosleep() could sleep several milliseconds less than the specified time on Intel Itanium(r)-based systems. (BZ#500349)

* LEDs for disk drives in AHCI mode may have displayed a fault state when there were no faults. (BZ#500120)

* ptrace_do_wait() reported tasks were stopped each time the process doing the trace called wait(), instead of reporting it once.
(BZ#486945)

* epoll_wait() may have caused a system lockup and problems for applications. (BZ#497322)

* missing capabilities could possibly allow users with an fsuid other than 0 to perform actions on some file system types that would otherwise be prevented. (BZ#497271)

* on NFS mounted file systems, heavy write loads may have blocked nfs_getattr() for long periods, causing commands that use stat(2), such as ls, to hang. (BZ#486926)

* in rare circumstances, if an application performed multiple O_DIRECT reads per virtual memory page and also performed fork(2), the buffer storing the result of the I/O may have ended up with invalid data.
(BZ#486921)

* when using GFS2, gfs2_quotad may have entered an uninterpretable sleep state. (BZ#501742)

* with this update, get_random_int() is more random and no longer uses a common seed value, reducing the possibility of predicting the values returned. (BZ#499783)

* the '-fwrapv' flag was added to the gcc build options to prevent gcc from optimizing away wrapping. (BZ#501751)

* a kernel panic when enabling and disabling iSCSI paths. (BZ#502916)

* using the Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5704 network device with the tg3 driver caused high system load and very bad performance. (BZ#502837)

* '/proc/[pid]/maps' and '/proc/[pid]/smaps' can only be read by processes able to use the ptrace() call on a given process; however, certain information from '/proc/[pid]/stat' and '/proc/[pid]/wchan' could be used to reconstruct memory maps. (BZ#499546)

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.

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.

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2009:1106 advisory.

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

    Security fixes:

    * several flaws were found in the way the Linux kernel CIFS implementation     handles Unicode strings. CIFS clients convert Unicode strings sent by a     server to their local character sets, and then write those strings into     memory. If a malicious server sent a long enough string, it could write     past the end of the target memory region and corrupt other memory areas,     possibly leading to a denial of service or privilege escalation on the     client mounting the CIFS share. (CVE-2009-1439, CVE-2009-1633, Important)

    * the Linux kernel Network File System daemon (nfsd) implementation did not     drop the CAP_MKNOD capability when handling requests from local,     unprivileged users. This flaw could possibly lead to an information leak or     privilege escalation. (CVE-2009-1072, Moderate)

    * Frank Filz reported the NFSv4 client was missing a file permission check     for the execute bit in some situations. This could allow local,     unprivileged users to run non-executable files on NFSv4 mounted file     systems. (CVE-2009-1630, Moderate)

    * a missing check was found in the hypervisor_callback() function in the     Linux kernel provided by the kernel-xen package. This could cause a denial     of service of a 32-bit guest if an application running in that guest     accesses a certain memory location in the kernel. (CVE-2009-1758, Moderate)

    * a flaw was found in the AGPGART driver. The agp_generic_alloc_page() and     agp_generic_alloc_pages() functions did not zero out the memory pages they     allocate, which may later be available to user-space processes. This flaw     could possibly lead to an information leak. (CVE-2009-1192, Low)

    Bug fixes:

    * a race in the NFS client between destroying cached access rights and     unmounting an NFS file system could have caused a system crash. Busy     inodes messages may have been logged. (BZ#498653)

    * nanosleep() could sleep several milliseconds less than the specified time     on Intel Itanium-based systems. (BZ#500349)

    * LEDs for disk drives in AHCI mode may have displayed a fault state when     there were no faults. (BZ#500120)

    * ptrace_do_wait() reported tasks were stopped each time the process doing     the trace called wait(), instead of reporting it once. (BZ#486945)

    * epoll_wait() may have caused a system lockup and problems for     applications. (BZ#497322)

    * missing capabilities could possibly allow users with an fsuid other than     0 to perform actions on some file system types that would otherwise be     prevented. (BZ#497271)

    * on NFS mounted file systems, heavy write loads may have blocked     nfs_getattr() for long periods, causing commands that use stat(2), such as     ls, to hang. (BZ#486926)

    * in rare circumstances, if an application performed multiple O_DIRECT     reads per virtual memory page and also performed fork(2), the buffer     storing the result of the I/O may have ended up with invalid data.
    (BZ#486921)

    * when using GFS2, gfs2_quotad may have entered an uninterpretable sleep     state. (BZ#501742)

    * with this update, get_random_int() is more random and no longer uses a     common seed value, reducing the possibility of predicting the values     returned. (BZ#499783)

    * the -fwrapv flag was added to the gcc build options to prevent gcc from     optimizing away wrapping. (BZ#501751)

    * a kernel panic when enabling and disabling iSCSI paths. (BZ#502916)

    * using the Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5704 network device with the tg3 driver     caused high system load and very bad performance. (BZ#502837)

    * /proc/[pid]/maps and /proc/[pid]/smaps can only be read by processes     able to use the ptrace() call on a given process; however, certain     information from /proc/[pid]/stat and /proc/[pid]/wchan could be used     to reconstruct memory maps. (BZ#499546)

    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.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise 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.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2009-1438.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2009-1106.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
67925	Oracle Linux 4 : kernel (ELSA-2009-1438)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	high
67874	Oracle Linux 5 : kernel (ELSA-2009-1106)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	medium
59141	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux kernel (ZYPP Patch Number 6641)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
59140	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux kernel (ZYPP Patch Number 6636)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
49867	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux kernel (ZYPP Patch Number 6637)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	high
44794	Debian DSA-1929-1 : linux-2.6 - privilege escalation/denial of service/sensitive memory leak	Nessus	Debian 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
44792	Debian DSA-1927-1 : linux-2.6 - privilege escalation/denial of service/sensitive memory leak	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	high
44621	openSUSE Security Update : kernel (kernel-1908)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	critical
43790	CentOS 4 : kernel (CESA-2009:1438)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
43757	CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2009:1106)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
42465	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux kernel (ZYPP Patch Number 6632)	Nessus	SuSE 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
40998	RHEL 4 : kernel (RHSA-2009:1438)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	high
39430	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2009:1106)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	medium
801476	CentOS RHSA-2009-1438 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high
801470	CentOS RHSA-2009-1106 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2009-3238

medium

Tenable Plugins

high

medium

high

high

high

high

high

high

critical

high

high

high

high

high

medium

high

high