RHEL 7 : kernel-alt (RHSA-2018:0180)

high Nessus Plugin ID 234376

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Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing a security update for kernel-alt.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 7 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the RHSA-2018:0180 advisory.

The kernel-alt packages provide the Linux kernel version 4.x.

Security Fix(es):

* A flaw was found in the patches used to fix the 'dirtycow' vulnerability (CVE-2016-5195). An attacker, able to run local code, can exploit a race condition in transparent huge pages to modify usually read-only huge pages. (CVE-2017-1000405)

Red Hat would like to thank Eylon Ben Yaakov and Daniel Shapiro for reporting this issue.

Bug Fix(es):

* Previously, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 with the kernel version provided by the kernel-alt package, did not support turning off transactional memory (TM) on the POWER9 systems. With this update it is now possible to turn off TM on the POWER9 systems. (BZ#1509974)

* Due to a bug in the ixgbe and i40e drivers, the socket buffer list (skb list) in some cases got corrupted when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 with the kernel version provided by the kernel-alt package on the POWER9 systems. Consequently, a kernel panic occurred. This update fixes ixgbe and i40e, and the kernel no longer panics due to this behavior. (BZ#1518412)

* Users can lower the max_sectors_kb setting in the sysfs file system to accommodate certain workloads.
Previously, users needed to set the maximum I/O size to either the block layer default or the optional preferred I/O size reported by the device. This update fixes the scsi driver to keep the current heuristic function for the initial setting of max_sectors_kb. As a result, for subsequent invocations, the driver now only updates the current queue limit if it exceeds the capabilities of the hardware. (BZ#1518432)

* When performing full-bootme tests on Boston ESS systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 with the kernel version provided in the kernel-alt package, a kernel panic occurred and the operating system dropped into the XMON software. This update fixes the Multi-Queue Block IO Queueing Mechanism (blk-mq), and the kernel no longer panics in these circumstances. (BZ#1518433)

* When running the stress test on the file system with the gssstress command, and pulling one disk from one recovery group, kernel I/O error was reported, and gssstress became unresponsive. Gssstress now works as expected under the described circumstances. (BZ#1522645)

* When using the fwupdate_xl710 utility to apply updates for NVM Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter XL710 on machines running Red Hat Enterpise Linux 7.4 with the kernel version provided in the kernel-alt package, a deadlock sometimes occurred when the i40e driver was acquiring access to the Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) of the device. Consequently, NVM acquire timeouts occurred, the firmware update failed with the following error message: Failed Acquiring NVM resource for read err=-53 status=0xa, and left the device's memory in a corrupted state. This update fixes the i40e driver, and the firmware updates no longer fail due to this behavior. (BZ#1522843)

* Previously, on POWER9 systems with more than 100 Pstates, the cpufreq driver did not handle the cases when the NxN matrix denominated transition table (trans_table) overflowed beyond the PAGE_SIZE boundary correctly. Consequently, reading trans_table for any of the CPUs failed with the following error:

fill_read_buffer: show+0x0/0xa0 returned bad count

With this update reading trans_table for any of the CPUs now proceeds as expected under the described circumstances. (BZ#1522844)

* Previously, the /sys/firmware/opal/exports directory did not contain an export node. Consequently, a range of memory in the Open Power Abstraction Layer (OPAL) that the operating system attempted to export to user space for debugging purposes was not available. With this update the sysfs file under /sys/firmware/opal/exports is now available for each property found there, and this file can be used for debugging purposes. (BZ#1522845)

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

Solution

Update the RHEL kernel-alt package based on the guidance in RHSA-2018:0180.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 234376

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2018-0180.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 4/15/2025

Updated: 4/15/2025

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 8.9

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Important

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.9

Temporal Score: 6

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2017-1000405

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7

Temporal Score: 6.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:H/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-tools, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-headers, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-tools-libs-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-debug-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-bootwrapper, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-alt, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-tools-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:python-perf, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-debug, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:perf

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

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 1/25/2018

Vulnerability Publication Date: 11/30/2017

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2017-1000405

CWE: 362

RHSA: 2018:0180

Detections

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