Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Extended Update Support.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important 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.

Security fixes :

* a race condition was found in the mac80211 implementation, a framework used for writing drivers for wireless devices. An attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a Delete Block ACK (DELBA) packet to a target system, resulting in a remote denial of service. Note:
This issue only affected users on 802.11n networks, and that also use the iwlagn driver with Intel wireless hardware. (CVE-2009-4027, Important)

* a use-after-free flaw was found in the tcp_rcv_state_process() function in the Linux kernel TCP/IP protocol suite implementation. If a system using IPv6 had the IPV6_RECVPKTINFO option set on a listening socket, a remote attacker could send an IPv6 packet to that system, causing a kernel panic (denial of service). (CVE-2010-1188, Important)

* a flaw was found in the gfs2_lock() implementation. The GFS2 locking code could skip the lock operation for files that have the S_ISGID bit (set-group-ID on execution) in their mode set. A local, unprivileged user on a system that has a GFS2 file system mounted could use this flaw to cause a kernel panic (denial of service). (CVE-2010-0727, Moderate)

* a divide-by-zero flaw was found in the ext4 file system code. A local attacker could use this flaw to cause a denial of service by mounting a specially crafted ext4 file system. (CVE-2009-4307, Low)

Bug fixes :

* if a program that calls posix_fadvise() were compiled on x86, and then run on a 64-bit system, that program could experience various problems, including performance issues and the call to posix_fadvise() failing, causing the program to not run as expected or even abort.
With this update, when such programs attempt to call posix_fadvise() on 64-bit systems, sys32_fadvise64() is called instead, which resolves this issue. This update also fixes other 32-bit system calls that were mistakenly called on 64-bit systems (including systems running the kernel-xen kernel). (BZ#569597)

* on some systems able to set a P-State limit via the BIOS, it was not possible to set the limit to a higher frequency if the system was rebooted while a low limit was set:
'/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu[x]/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq' would retain the low limit in these situations. With this update, limits are correctly set, even after being changed after a system reboot.
(BZ#569727)

* certain Intel ICH hardware (using the e1000e driver) has an NFS filtering capability that did not work as expected, causing memory corruption, which could lead to kernel panics, or other unexpected behavior. In a reported case, a panic occurred when running NFS connection tests. This update resolves this issue by disabling the filtering capability. (BZ#569797)

* if 'open(/proc/[PID]/[xxxx])' was called at the same time the process was exiting, the call would fail with an EINVAL error (an incorrect error for this situation). With this update, the correct error, ENOENT, is returned in this situation. (BZ#571362)

* multiqueue is used for transmitting data, but a single queue transmit ON/OFF scheme was used. This led to a race condition on systems with the bnx2x driver in situations where one queue became full, but not stopped, and the other queue enabled transmission. With this update, only a single queue is used. (BZ#576951)

* the '/proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr' tunable helps prevent unprivileged users from creating new memory mappings below the minimum address. The sysctl value for mmap_min_addr could be changed by a process or user that has an effective user ID (euid) of 0, even if the process or user does not have the CAP_SYS_RAWIO capability. This update adds a capability check for the CAP_SYS_RAWIO capability before allowing the mmap_min_addr value to be changed. (BZ#577206)

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.

It was discovered that the AX.25 network subsystem did not correctly check integer signedness in certain setsockopt calls. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 9.10 was not affected. (CVE-2009-2909)

Jan Beulich discovered that the kernel could leak register contents to 32-bit processes that were switched to 64-bit mode. A local attacker could run a specially crafted binary to read register values from an earlier process, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-2910)

Dave Jones discovered that the gdth SCSI driver did not correctly validate array indexes in certain ioctl calls. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system or gain elevated privileges.
(CVE-2009-3080)

Eric Dumazet and Jiri Pirko discovered that the TC and CLS subsystems would leak kernel memory via uninitialized structure members. A local attacker could exploit this to read several bytes of kernel memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2009-3228, CVE-2009-3612)

Earl Chew discovered race conditions in pipe handling. A local attacker could exploit anonymous pipes via /proc/*/fd/ and crash the system or gain root privileges. (CVE-2009-3547)

Dave Jones and Francois Romieu discovered that the r8169 network driver could be made to leak kernel memory. A remote attacker could send a large number of jumbo frames until the system memory was exhausted, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 9.10 was not affected. (CVE-2009-3613).

Ben Hutchings discovered that the ATI Rage 128 video driver did not correctly validate initialization states. A local attacker could make specially crafted ioctl calls to crash the system or gain root privileges. (CVE-2009-3620)

Tomoki Sekiyama discovered that Unix sockets did not correctly verify namespaces. A local attacker could exploit this to cause a system hang, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-3621)

J. Bruce Fields discovered that NFSv4 did not correctly use the credential cache. A local attacker using a mount with AUTH_NULL authentication could exploit this to crash the system or gain root privileges. Only Ubuntu 9.10 was affected. (CVE-2009-3623)

Alexander Zangerl discovered that the kernel keyring did not correctly reference count. A local attacker could issue a series of specially crafted keyring calls to crash the system or gain root privileges.
Only Ubuntu 9.10 was affected. (CVE-2009-3624)

David Wagner discovered that KVM did not correctly bounds-check CPUID entries. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system or possibly gain elevated privileges. Ubuntu 6.06 and 9.10 were not affected. (CVE-2009-3638)

Avi Kivity discovered that KVM did not correctly check privileges when accessing debug registers. A local attacker could exploit this to crash a host system from within a guest system, leading to a denial of service. Ubuntu 6.06 and 9.10 were not affected. (CVE-2009-3722)

Philip Reisner discovered that the connector layer for uvesafb, pohmelfs, dst, and dm did not correctly check capabilties. A local attacker could exploit this to crash the system or gain elevated privileges. Ubuntu 6.06 was not affected. (CVE-2009-3725)

Trond Myklebust discovered that NFSv4 clients did not robustly verify attributes. A malicious remote NFSv4 server could exploit this to crash a client or gain root privileges. Ubuntu 9.10 was not affected.
(CVE-2009-3726)

Robin Getz discovered that NOMMU systems did not correctly validate NULL pointers in do_mmap_pgoff calls. A local attacker could attempt to allocate large amounts of memory to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. Only Ubuntu 6.06 and 9.10 were affected.
(CVE-2009-3888)

Joseph Malicki discovered that the MegaRAID SAS driver had world-writable option files. A local attacker could exploit these to disrupt the behavior of the controller, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-3889, CVE-2009-3939)

Roel Kluin discovered that the Hisax ISDN driver did not correctly check the size of packets. A remote attacker could send specially crafted packets to cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-4005)

Lennert Buytenhek discovered that certain 802.11 states were not handled correctly. A physically-proximate remote attacker could send specially crafted wireless traffic that would crash the system, leading to a denial of service. Only Ubuntu 9.10 was affected.
(CVE-2009-4026, CVE-2009-4027).

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues.

The Linux kernel for openSUSE 11.2 was updated to 2.6.31.8 to fix the following bugs and security issues :

  - A file overwrite issue on the ext4 filesystem could be     used by local attackers that have write access to a     filesystem to change/overwrite files of other users,     including root. (CVE-2009-4131)

  - A remote denial of service by sending overly long     packets could be used by remote attackers to crash a     machine. (CVE-2009-1298)

  - The mac80211 subsystem in the Linux kernel allows remote     attackers to cause a denial of service (panic) via a     crafted Delete Block ACK (aka DELBA) packet, related to     an erroneous 'code shuffling patch.' (CVE-2009-4026)

  - Race condition in the mac80211 subsystem in the Linux     kernel allows remote attackers to cause a denial of     service (system crash) via a Delete Block ACK (aka     DELBA) packet that triggers a certain state change in     the absence of an aggregation session. (CVE-2009-4027)

  - The poll_mode_io file for the megaraid_sas driver in     the Linux kernel has world-writable permissions, which     allows local users to change the I/O mode of the driver     by modifying this file. (CVE-2009-3939)

  - The collect_rx_frame function in     drivers/isdn/hisax/hfc_usb.c in the Linux kernel allows     attackers to have an unspecified impact via a crafted     HDLC packet that arrives over ISDN and triggers a buffer     under-read. This requires the attacker to access the     machine on ISDN protocol level. (CVE-2009-4005)

  - Array index error in the gdth_read_event function in     drivers/scsi/gdth.c in the Linux kernel allows local     users to cause a denial of service or possibly gain     privileges via a negative event index in an IOCTL     request. (CVE-2009-3080)

  - The get_instantiation_keyring function in     security/keys/keyctl.c in the KEYS subsystem in the     Linux kernel does not properly maintain the reference     count of a keyring, which allows local users to gain     privileges or cause a denial of service (OOPS) via     vectors involving calls to this function without     specifying a keyring by ID, as demonstrated by a series     of keyctl request2 and keyctl list commands.
    (CVE-2009-3624)

  - The fuse_direct_io function in fs/fuse/file.c in the     fuse subsystem in the Linux kernel might allow attackers     to cause a denial of service (invalid pointer     dereference and OOPS) via vectors possibly related to a     memory-consumption attack. (CVE-2009-4021)

  - Multiple race conditions in fs/pipe.c in the Linux     kernel allow local users to cause a denial of service     (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or gain     privileges by attempting to open an anonymous pipe via a     /proc/*/fd/ pathname. As openSUSE 11.2 by default sets     mmap_min_addr protection, this issue will just Oops the     kernel and not be able to execute code. (CVE-2009-3547)

  - net/unix/af_unix.c in the Linux kernel allows local     users to cause a denial of service (system hang) by     creating an abstract-namespace AF_UNIX listening socket,     performing a shutdown operation on this socket, and then     performing a series of connect operations to this     socket. (CVE-2009-3621)

  - drivers/firewire/ohci.c in the Linux kernel when     packet-per-buffer mode is used, allows local users to     cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and     system crash) or possibly have unknown other impact via     an unspecified ioctl associated with receiving an ISO     packet that contains zero in the payload-length field.
    (CVE-2009-4138)

  - The ext4_decode_error function in fs/ext4/super.c in     the ext4 filesystem in the Linux kernel allows     user-assisted remote attackers to cause a denial of     service (NULL pointer dereference), and possibly have     unspecified other impact, via a crafted read-only     filesystem that lacks a journal. (CVE-2009-4308)

  - The ext4_fill_flex_info function in fs/ext4/super.c in     the Linux kernel allows user-assisted remote attackers     to cause a denial of service (divide-by-zero error and     panic) via a malformed ext4 filesystem containing a     super block with a large FLEX_BG group size (aka     s_log_groups_per_flex value). (CVE-2009-4307)

  - Unspecified vulnerability in the EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT (aka     move extents) ioctl implementation in the ext4     filesystem in the Linux kernel allows local users to     cause a denial of service (filesystem corruption) via     unknown vectors, a different vulnerability than     CVE-2009-4131. (CVE-2009-4306)

  - The EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT (aka move extents) ioctl     implementation in the ext4 filesystem in the Linux     kernel allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files     via a crafted request, related to insufficient checks     for file permissions. This can lead to privilege     escalations. (CVE-2009-4131)

  - The rt2870 and rt2860 drivers were refreshed to the     level they are in the Linux 2.6.32 kernel, bringing new     device support and new functionality.

The remote Oracle Linux 5 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ELSA-2010-0178 advisory.

  - Race condition in the mac80211 subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.32-rc8-next-20091201 allows remote     attackers to cause a denial of service (system crash) via a Delete Block ACK (aka DELBA) packet that     triggers a certain state change in the absence of an aggregation session. (CVE-2009-4027)

  - The ext4_fill_flex_info function in fs/ext4/super.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.32-git6 allows user-     assisted remote attackers to cause a denial of service (divide-by-zero error and panic) via a malformed     ext4 filesystem containing a super block with a large FLEX_BG group size (aka s_log_groups_per_flex     value). (CVE-2009-4307)

  - The gfs2_lock function in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34-rc1-next-20100312, and the gfs_lock function in     the Linux kernel on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 and 6, does not properly remove POSIX locks on files     that are setgid without group-execute permission, which allows local users to cause a denial of service     (BUG and system crash) by locking a file on a (1) GFS or (2) GFS2 filesystem, and then changing this     file's permissions. (CVE-2010-0727)

  - Use-after-free vulnerability in net/ipv4/tcp_input.c in the Linux kernel 2.6 before 2.6.20, when     IPV6_RECVPKTINFO is set on a listening socket, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service     (kernel panic) via a SYN packet while the socket is in a listening (TCP_LISTEN) state, which is not     properly handled and causes the skb structure to be freed. (CVE-2010-1188)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel that may lead to a denial of service, sensitive memory leak or privilege escalation. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems :

  - CVE-2009-3939     Joseph Malicki reported that the dbg_lvl sysfs attribute     for the megaraid_sas device driver had world-writable     permissions, permitting local users to modify logging     settings.

  - CVE-2009-4027     Lennert Buytenhek reported a race in the mac80211     subsystem that may allow remote users to cause a denial     of service (system crash) on a system connected to the     same wireless network.

  - CVE-2009-4536 CVE-2009-4538     Fabian Yamaguchi reported issues in the e1000 and e1000e     drivers for Intel gigabit network adapters which allow     remote users to bypass packet filters using specially     crafted ethernet frames.

  - CVE-2010-0003     Andi Kleen reported a defect which allows local users to     gain read access to memory reachable by the kernel when     the print-fatal-signals option is enabled. This option     is disabled by default.

  - CVE-2010-0007     Florian Westphal reported a lack of capability checking     in the ebtables netfilter subsystem. If the ebtables     module is loaded, local users can add and modify     ebtables rules.

  - CVE-2010-0291     Al Viro reported several issues with the mmap/mremap     system calls that allow local users to cause a denial of     service (system panic) or obtain elevated privileges.

  - CVE-2010-0298 & CVE-2010-0306     Gleb Natapov discovered issues in the KVM subsystem     where missing permission checks (CPL/IOPL) permit a user     in a guest system to denial of service a guest (system     crash) or gain escalated privileges with the guest.

  - CVE-2010-0307     Mathias Krause reported an issue with the     load_elf_binary code on the amd64 flavor kernels that     allows local users to cause a denial of service (system     crash).

  - CVE-2010-0309     Marcelo Tosatti fixed an issue in the PIT emulation code     in the KVM subsystem that allows privileged users in a     guest domain to cause a denial of service (crash) of the     host system.

  - CVE-2010-0410     Sebastian Krahmer discovered an issue in the netlink     connector subsystem that permits local users to allocate     large amounts of system memory resulting in a denial of     service (out of memory).

  - CVE-2010-0415     Ramon de Carvalho Valle discovered an issue in the     sys_move_pages interface, limited to amd64, ia64 and     powerpc64 flavors in Debian. Local users can exploit     this issue to cause a denial of service (system crash)     or gain access to sensitive kernel memory.

Updated kernel packages that fix three security issues, address several hundred bugs, and add numerous enhancements are now available as part of the ongoing support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5. This is the fifth regular update.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important 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 :

* a race condition was found in the mac80211 implementation, a framework used for writing drivers for wireless devices. An attacker could trigger this flaw by sending a Delete Block ACK (DELBA) packet to a target system, resulting in a remote denial of service. Note:
This issue only affected users on 802.11n networks, and that also use the iwlagn driver with Intel wireless hardware. (CVE-2009-4027, Important)

* a flaw was found in the gfs2_lock() implementation. The GFS2 locking code could skip the lock operation for files that have the S_ISGID bit (set-group-ID on execution) in their mode set. A local, unprivileged user on a system that has a GFS2 file system mounted could use this flaw to cause a kernel panic. (CVE-2010-0727, Moderate)

* a divide-by-zero flaw was found in the ext4 file system code. A local attacker could use this flaw to cause a denial of service by mounting a specially crafted ext4 file system. (CVE-2009-4307, Low)

These updated packages also include several hundred bug fixes for and enhancements to the Linux kernel. Space precludes documenting each of these changes in this advisory and users are directed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 Release Notes for information on the most significant of these changes :

http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5.5/html/ Release_Notes/

Also, for details concerning every bug fixed in and every enhancement added to the kernel for this release, refer to the kernel chapter in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 Technical Notes :

http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5.5/html/ Technical_Notes/kernel.html

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users are advised to install these updated packages, which address these vulnerabilities as well as fixing the bugs and adding the enhancements noted in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 Release Notes and Technical Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
63932	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2010:0380)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	1/24/2013	1/14/2021	high
43026	Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 8.04 LTS / 8.10 / 9.04 / 9.10 : linux, linux-source-2.6.15 vulnerabilities (USN-864-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	12/7/2009	1/19/2021	high
43631	SuSE 11.2 Security Update: kernel (2009-12-18)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	1/5/2010	1/14/2021	high
180620	Oracle Linux 5 : Oracle / Enterprise / Linux / 5.5 / kernel (ELSA-2010-0178)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	9/7/2023	9/7/2023	medium
44860	Debian DSA-1996-1 : linux-2.6 - privilege escalation/denial of service/sensitive memory leak	Nessus	Debian Local Security Checks	2/24/2010	1/4/2021	critical
46282	RHEL 5 : kernel (RHSA-2010:0178)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	5/11/2010	1/14/2021	high

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