RHEL 3 : kernel (RHSA-2004:255)

high Nessus Plugin ID 12508

Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

Updated kernel packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 that fix security vulnerabilities are now available.

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

A flaw was found in Linux kernel versions 2.4 and 2.6 for x86 and x86_64 that allowed local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) by triggering a signal handler with a certain sequence of fsave and frstor instructions. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2004-0554 to this issue.

Another flaw was discovered in an error path supporting the clone() system call that allowed local users to cause a denial of service (memory leak) by passing invalid arguments to clone() running in an infinite loop of a user's program. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2004-0427 to this issue.

Enhancements were committed to the 2.6 kernel by Al Viro which enabled the Sparse source code checking tool to check for a certain class of kernel bugs. A subset of these fixes also applies to various drivers in the 2.4 kernel. Although the majority of these resides in drivers unsupported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, the flaws could lead to privilege escalation or access to kernel memory. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2004-0495 to these issues.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade their kernels to the packages associated with their machine architectures and configurations as listed in this erratum. These packages contain backported patches to correct these issues.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2004-0427

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2004-0495

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2004-0554

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2004:255

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 12508

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2004-255.nasl

Version: 1.30

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 7/6/2004

Updated: 1/14/2021

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-smp-unsupported, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:3, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-doc, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-source, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-hugemem, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-unsupported, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-smp, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-hugemem-unsupported, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-boot

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Patch Publication Date: 6/17/2004

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/7/2004

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2004-0427, CVE-2004-0495, CVE-2004-0554

RHSA: 2004:255