RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2009:0473)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 38709

Synopsis

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

Description

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.

This update fixes the following security issues :

* a logic error was found in the do_setlk() function of the Linux kernel Network File System (NFS) implementation. If a signal interrupted a lock request, the local POSIX lock was incorrectly created. This could cause a denial of service on the NFS server if a file descriptor was closed before its corresponding lock request returned. (CVE-2008-4307, Important)

* a deficiency was found in the Linux kernel system call auditing implementation on 64-bit systems. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to circumvent a system call audit configuration, if that configuration filtered based on the 'syscall' number or arguments. (CVE-2009-0834, 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 ecryptfs_write_metadata_to_contents() function of the Linux kernel eCryptfs implementation. On systems with a 4096 byte page-size, this flaw may have caused 4096 bytes of uninitialized kernel memory to be written into the eCryptfs file headers, leading to an information leak. Note: Encrypted files created on systems running the vulnerable version of eCryptfs may contain leaked data in the eCryptfs file headers. This update does not remove any leaked data. Refer to the Knowledgebase article in the References section for further information. (CVE-2009-0787, Moderate)

* the Linux kernel implementation of the Network File System (NFS) did not properly initialize the file name limit in the nfs_server data structure. This flaw could possibly lead to a denial of service on a client mounting an NFS share. (CVE-2009-1336, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* the enic driver (Cisco 10G Ethernet) did not operate under virtualization. (BZ#472474)

* network interfaces using the IBM eHEA Ethernet device driver could not be successfully configured under low-memory conditions.
(BZ#487035)

* bonding with the 'arp_validate=3' option may have prevented fail overs. (BZ#488064)

* when running under virtualization, the acpi-cpufreq module wrote 'Domain attempted WRMSR' errors to the dmesg log. (BZ#488928)

* NFS clients may have experienced deadlocks during unmount.
(BZ#488929)

* the ixgbe driver double counted the number of received bytes and packets. (BZ#489459)

* the Wacom Intuos3 Lens Cursor device did not work correctly with the Wacom Intuos3 12x12 tablet. (BZ#489460)

* on the Itanium(r) architecture, nanosleep() caused commands which used it, such as sleep and usleep, to sleep for one second more than expected. (BZ#490434)

* a panic and corruption of slab cache data structures occurred on 64-bit PowerPC systems when clvmd was running. (BZ#491677)

* the NONSTOP_TSC feature did not perform correctly on the Intel(r) microarchitecture (Nehalem) when running in 32-bit mode. (BZ#493356)

* keyboards may not have functioned on IBM eServer System p machines after a certain point during installation or afterward. (BZ#494293)

* using Device Mapper Multipathing with the qla2xxx driver resulted in frequent path failures. (BZ#495635)

* if the hypervisor was booted with the dom0_max_vcpus parameter set to less than the actual number of CPUs in the system, and the cpuspeed service was started, the hypervisor could crash. (BZ#495931)

* using Openswan to provide an IPsec virtual private network eventually resulted in a CPU soft lockup and a system crash.
(BZ#496044)

* it was possible for posix_locks_deadlock() to enter an infinite loop (under the BKL), causing a system hang. (BZ#496842)

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.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 38709

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2009-0473.nasl

Version: 1.30

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 5/8/2009

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: 6.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.9

Temporal Score: 3.8

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-xen-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-pae, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-headers, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-debug-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-doc, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-pae-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-kdump, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5.3, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-kdump-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-debug, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:kernel-xen

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: 5/7/2009

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/13/2009

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2008-4307, CVE-2009-0787, CVE-2009-0834, CVE-2009-1336, CVE-2009-1337

BID: 33951, 34405

CWE: 189, 20, 264, 362

RHSA: 2009:0473

Detections

Analytics