Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL5.x i386/x86_64 (20140903)

low Nessus Plugin ID 77552

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Synopsis

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

Description

- An out-of-bounds memory access flaw was found in the Linux kernel's system call auditing implementation. On a system with existing audit rules defined, a local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to leak kernel memory to user space or, potentially, crash the system.
(CVE-2014-3917, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

- A bug in the journaling code (jbd and jbd2) could, under very heavy workload of fsync() operations, trigger a BUG_ON and result in a kernel oops. Also, fdatasync() could fail to immediately write out changes in the file size only. These problems have been resolved by backporting a series of patches that fixed these problems in the respective code on Scientific Linux 6.
This update also improves performance of ext3 and ext4 file systems.

- Due to a bug in the ext4 code, the fdatasync() system call did not force the inode size change to be written to the disk if it was the only metadata change in the file. This could result in the wrong inode size and possible data loss if the system terminated unexpectedly. The code handling inode updates has been fixed and fdatasync() now writes data to the disk as expected in this situation.

- A workaround to a DMA read problem in the tg3 driver was incorrectly applied to the whole Broadcom 5719 and 5720 chipset family. This workaround is valid only to the A0 revision of the 5719 chips and for other revisions and chips causes occasional Tx timeouts. This update correctly applies the aforementioned workaround only to the A0 revision of the 5719 chips.

- Due to a bug in the page writeback code, the system could become unresponsive when being under memory pressure and heavy NFS load. This update fixes the code responsible for handling of dirty pages, and dirty page write outs no longer flood the work queue.

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

Solution

Update the affected packages.

Plugin Details

Severity: Low

ID: 77552

File Name: sl_20140903_kernel_on_SL5_x.nasl

Version: 1.5

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Scientific Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 9/5/2014

Updated: 1/14/2021

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5.2

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 3.3

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-pae, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-pae-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-pae-devel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debug, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debug-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debug-devel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-debuginfo-common, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-doc, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-headers, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-xen, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-xen-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:fermilab:scientific_linux:kernel-xen-devel, x-cpe:/o:fermilab:scientific_linux

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

Patch Publication Date: 9/3/2014

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/5/2014

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2014-3917

Detections

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