CentOS 5 : kernel (CESA-2013:1034)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 67235

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Synopsis

The remote CentOS host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and various bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having low security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.

This update fixes the following security issues :

* Information leaks in the Linux kernel could allow a local, unprivileged user to leak kernel memory to user-space. (CVE-2012-6544, CVE-2012-6545, CVE-2013-3222, CVE-2013-3224, CVE-2013-3231, CVE-2013-3235, Low)

* An information leak was found in the Linux kernel's POSIX signals implementation. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to bypass the Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) security feature.
(CVE-2013-0914, Low)

* A heap-based buffer overflow in the way the tg3 Ethernet driver parsed the vital product data (VPD) of devices could allow an attacker with physical access to a system to cause a denial of service or, potentially, escalate their privileges. (CVE-2013-1929, Low)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* Previously on system boot, devices with associated Reserved Memory Region Reporting (RMRR) information had lost their RMRR information after they were removed from the static identity (SI) domain.
Consequently, a system unexpectedly terminated in an endless loop due to unexpected NMIs triggered by DMA errors. This problem was observed on HP ProLiant Generation 7 (G7) and 8 (Gen8) systems. This update prevents non-USB devices that have RMRR information associated with them from being placed into the SI domain during system boot. HP ProLiant G7 and Gen8 systems that contain devices with the RMRR information now boot as expected. (BZ#957606)

* Previously, the kernel's futex wait code used timeouts that had granularity in milliseconds. Also, when passing these timeouts to system calls, the kernel converted the timeouts to 'jiffies'.
Consequently, programs could time out inaccurately which could lead to significant latency problems in certain environments. This update modifies the futex wait code to use a high-resolution timer (hrtimer) so the timeout granularity is now in microseconds. Timeouts are no longer converted to 'jiffies' when passed to system calls. Timeouts passed to programs are now accurate and the programs time out as expected. (BZ#958021)

* A recent change modified the size of the task_struct structure in the floating point unit (fpu) counter. However, on Intel Itanium systems, this change caused the kernel Application Binary Interface (kABI) to stop working properly when a previously compiled module was loaded, resulting in a kernel panic. With this update the change causing this bug has been reverted so the bug can no longer occur.
(BZ#966878)

* The cxgb4 driver previously did not clear data structures used for firmware requests. Consequently, when initializing some Chelsio's Terminator 4 (T4) adapters, a probe request could fail because the request was incompatible with the adapter's firmware. This update modifies the cxgb4 driver to properly initialize firmware request structures before sending a request to the firmware and the problem no longer occurs. (BZ#971872)

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 kernel packages.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 67235

File Name: centos_RHSA-2013-1034.nasl

Version: 1.9

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: CentOS Local Security Checks

Published: 7/11/2013

Updated: 1/4/2021

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.9

Temporal Score: 4.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2013-3222

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-pae, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-pae-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-debug, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-debug-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-doc, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-headers, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-xen, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:kernel-xen-devel, cpe:/o:centos:centos:5

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 7/10/2013

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/15/2013

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2012-6544, CVE-2012-6545, CVE-2013-0914, CVE-2013-1929, CVE-2013-3222, CVE-2013-3224, CVE-2013-3231, CVE-2013-3235

BID: 58426, 58908, 58990, 58991, 59377, 59383, 59390, 59393

RHSA: 2013:1034

Detections

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