Scientific Linux Security Update : kvm on SL5.4 x86_64

high Nessus Plugin ID 60704

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Synopsis

The remote Scientific Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

CVE-2009-4031 kernel: KVM: x86 emulator: limit instructions to 15 bytes

On x86 platforms, the do_insn_fetch() function did not limit the amount of instruction bytes fetched per instruction. Users in guest operating systems could leverage this flaw to cause large latencies on SMP hosts that could lead to a local denial of service on the host operating system. This update fixes this issue by imposing the architecturally-defined 15 byte length limit for instructions.
(CVE-2009-4031)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

- performance problems occurred when using the qcow2 image format with the qemu-kvm -drive 'cache=none' option (the default setting when not specified otherwise). This could cause guest operating system installations to take hours. With this update, performance patches have been backported so that using the qcow2 image format with the 'cache=none' option no longer causes performance issues.
(BZ#520693)

- when using the virtual vm8086 mode, bugs in the emulated hardware task switching implementation may have, in some situations, caused older guest operating systems to malfunction. (BZ#532031)

- Windows Server 2003 guests (32-bit) with more than 4GB of memory may have crashed during reboot when using the default qemu-kvm CPU settings. (BZ#532043)

- with Scientific Linux Virtualization, guests continued to run after encountering disk read errors. This could have led to their file systems becoming corrupted (but not the host's), notably in environments that use networked storage. With this update, the qemu-kvm -drive 'werror=stop' option now applies not only to write errors but also to read errors: When using this option, guests will pause on disk read and write errors.

By default, guests managed by Scientific Linux Virtualization use the 'werror=stop' option. This option is not used by default for guests managed by libvirt. (BZ#537334, BZ#540406)

- the para-virtualized block driver (virtio-blk) silently ignored read errors when accessing disk images. With this update, the driver correctly signals the read error to the guest. (BZ#537334)

Solution

Update the affected packages.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 60704

File Name: sl_20091209_kvm_on_SL5_4.nasl

Version: 1.5

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Scientific Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 8/1/2012

Updated: 1/14/2021

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.5

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: x-cpe:/o:fermilab:scientific_linux

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

Patch Publication Date: 12/9/2009

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2009-4031

CWE: 20

Detections

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