RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2009:1670)

high Nessus Plugin ID 43168

Synopsis

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

Description

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 :

* NULL pointer dereference flaws in the r128 driver. Checks to test if the Concurrent Command Engine state was initialized were missing in private IOCTL functions. An attacker could use these flaws to cause a local denial of service or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2009-3620, Important)

* a NULL pointer dereference flaw in the NFSv4 implementation. Several NFSv4 file locking functions failed to check whether a file had been opened on the server before performing locking operations on it. A local user on a system with an NFSv4 share mounted could possibly use this flaw to cause a denial of service or escalate their privileges.
(CVE-2009-3726, Important)

* a flaw in tcf_fill_node(). A certain data structure in this function was not initialized properly before being copied to user-space. This could lead to an information leak. (CVE-2009-3612, Moderate)

* unix_stream_connect() did not check if a UNIX domain socket was in the shutdown state. This could lead to a deadlock. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service.
(CVE-2009-3621, Moderate)

Knowledgebase DOC-20536 has steps to mitigate NULL pointer dereference flaws.

Bug fixes :

* frequently changing a CPU between online and offline caused a kernel panic on some systems. (BZ#545583)

* for the LSI Logic LSI53C1030 Ultra320 SCSI controller, read commands sent could receive incorrect data, preventing correct data transfer.
(BZ#529308)

* pciehp could not detect PCI Express hot plug slots on some systems.
(BZ#530383)

* soft lockups: inotify race and contention on dcache_lock.
(BZ#533822, BZ#537019)

* priority ordered lists are now used for threads waiting for a given mutex. (BZ#533858)

* a deadlock in DLM could cause GFS2 file systems to lock up.
(BZ#533859)

* use-after-free bug in the audit subsystem crashed certain systems when running usermod. (BZ#533861)

* on certain hardware configurations, a kernel panic when the Broadcom iSCSI offload driver (bnx2i.ko and cnic.ko) was loaded. (BZ#537014)

* qla2xxx: Enabled MSI-X, and correctly handle the module parameter to control it. This improves performance for certain systems. (BZ#537020)

* system crash when reading the cpuaffinity file on a system.
(BZ#537346)

* suspend-resume problems on systems with lots of logical CPUs, e.g.
BX-EX. (BZ#539674)

* off-by-one error in the legacy PCI bus check. (BZ#539675)

* TSC was not made available on systems with multi-clustered APICs.
This could cause slow performance for time-sensitive applications.
(BZ#539676)

* ACPI: ARB_DISABLE now disabled on platforms that do not need it.
(BZ#539677)

* fix node to core and power-aware scheduling issues, and a kernel panic during boot on certain AMD Opteron processors. (BZ#539678, BZ#540469, BZ#539680, BZ#539682)

* APIC timer interrupt issues on some AMD Opteron systems prevented achieving full power savings. (BZ#539681)

* general OProfile support for some newer Intel processors.
(BZ#539683)

* system crash during boot when NUMA is enabled on systems using MC and kernel-xen. (BZ#539684)

* on some larger systems, performance issues due to a spinlock.
(BZ#539685)

* APIC errors when IOMMU is enabled on some AMD Opteron systems.
(BZ#539687)

* on some AMD Opteron systems, repeatedly taking a CPU offline then online caused a system hang. (BZ#539688)

* I/O page fault errors on some systems. (BZ#539689)

* certain memory configurations could cause the kernel-xen kernel to fail to boot on some AMD Opteron systems. (BZ#539690)

* NMI watchdog is now disabled for offline CPUs. (BZ#539691)

* duplicate directories in /proc/acpi/processor/ on BX-EX systems.
(BZ#539692)

* links did not come up when using bnx2x with certain Broadcom devices. (BZ#540381)

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: High

ID: 43168

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2009-1670.nasl

Version: 1.28

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 12/16/2009

Updated: 1/14/2021

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.9

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.1

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

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, 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, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5.4

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: 12/15/2009

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/19/2009

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2009-3612, CVE-2009-3620, CVE-2009-3621, CVE-2009-3726

BID: 36723, 36824, 36827, 36936

CWE: 20, 200, 399

RHSA: 2009:1670

Detections

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