Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

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

This update fixes the following security issues :

* multiple, missing initialization flaws were found in the Linux kernel. Padding data in several core network structures was not initialized properly before being sent to user-space. These flaws could lead to information leaks. (CVE-2005-4881, CVE-2009-3228, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* a packet duplication issue was fixed via the RHSA-2008:0665 update;
however, the fix introduced a problem for systems using network bonding: Backup slaves were unable to receive ARP packets. When using network bonding in the 'active-backup' mode and with the 'arp_validate=3' option, the bonding driver considered such backup slaves as being down (since they were not receiving ARP packets), preventing successful failover to these devices. (BZ#519384)

* due to insufficient memory barriers in the network code, a process sleeping in select() may have missed notifications about new data. In rare cases, this bug may have caused a process to sleep forever.
(BZ#519386)

* the driver version number in the ata_piix driver was not changed between Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8, even though changes had been made between these releases. This could have prevented the driver from loading on systems that check driver versions, as this driver appeared older than it was. (BZ#519389)

* a bug in nlm_lookup_host() could have led to un-reclaimed locks on file systems, resulting in the umount command failing. This bug could have also prevented NFS services from being relocated correctly in clustered environments. (BZ#519656)

* the data buffer ethtool_get_strings() allocated, for the igb driver, was smaller than the amount of data that was copied in igb_get_strings(), because of a miscalculation in IGB_QUEUE_STATS_LEN, resulting in memory corruption. This bug could have led to a kernel panic. (BZ#522738)

* in some situations, write operations to a TTY device were blocked even when the O_NONBLOCK flag was used. A reported case of this issue occurred when a single TTY device was opened by two users (one using blocking mode, and the other using non-blocking mode). (BZ#523930)

* a deadlock was found in the cciss driver. In rare cases, this caused an NMI lockup during boot. Messages such as 'cciss: controller cciss[x] failed, stopping.' and 'cciss[x]: controller not responding.' may have been displayed on the console. (BZ#525725)

* on 64-bit PowerPC systems, a rollover bug in the ibmveth driver could have caused a kernel panic. In a reported case, this panic occurred on a system with a large uptime and under heavy network load.
(BZ#527225)

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.

This update fixes a several security issues and various bugs in the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP 2 kernel.

The following security issues were fixed: CVE-2009-3939: A sysctl variable of the megaraid_sas driver was worldwriteable, allowing local users to cause a denial of service or potential code execution.

  - The collect_rx_frame function in     drivers/isdn/hisax/hfc_usb.c in the Linux kernel before     2.6.32-rc7 allows attackers to have an unspecified     impact via a crafted HDLC packet that arrives over ISDN     and triggers a buffer under-read. (CVE-2009-4005)

  - A negative offset in a ioctl in the GDTH RAID driver was     fixed. (CVE-2009-3080)

  - 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)

  - The dbg_lvl file for the megaraid_sas driver in the     Linux kernel before 2.6.27 has world-writable     permissions, which allows local users to change the (1)     behavior and (2) logging level of the driver by     modifying this file. (CVE-2009-3889)

  - Memory leak in the appletalk subsystem in the Linux     kernel when the appletalk and ipddp modules are loaded     but the ipddp'N' device is not found, allows remote     attackers to cause a denial of service (memory     consumption) via IP-DDP datagrams. (CVE-2009-2903)

  - 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)

  - The tcf_fill_node function in net/sched/cls_api.c in the     netlink subsystem in the Linux kernel 2.6.x before     2.6.32-rc5, and 2.4.37.6 and earlier, does not     initialize a certain tcm__pad2 structure member, which     might allow local users to obtain sensitive information     from kernel memory via unspecified vectors. NOTE: this     issue existed because of an incomplete fix for     CVE-2005-4881. (CVE-2009-3612 / CVE-2005-4881)

  - The ATI Rage 128 (aka r128) driver in the Linux kernel     does not properly verify Concurrent Command Engine (CCE)     state initialization, which allows local users to cause     a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system     crash) or possibly gain privileges via unspecified ioctl     calls. (CVE-2009-3620)

  - The nfs4_proc_lock function in fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c in the     NFSv4 client in the Linux kernel allows remote NFS     servers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer     dereference and panic) by sending a certain response     containing incorrect file attributes, which trigger     attempted use of an open file that lacks NFSv4 state.
    (CVE-2009-3726)

  - The swiotlb functionality in the r8169 driver in     drivers/net/r8169.c in the Linux kernel allows remote     attackers to cause a denial of service (IOMMU space     exhaustion and system crash) by using jumbo frames for a     large amount of network traffic, as demonstrated by a     flood ping. (CVE-2009-3613)

The rio and sx serial multiport card drivers were disabled via a modprobe blacklist due to severe bugs.

For a full list of changes, please read the RPM changelog.

This update fixes various bugs and some security issues in the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP 3 kernel.

The following security issues were fixed: CVE-2009-3939: A sysctl variable of the megaraid_sas driver was worldwriteable, allowing local users to cause a denial of service or potential code execution.

  - The collect_rx_frame function in     drivers/isdn/hisax/hfc_usb.c in the Linux kernel before     2.6.32-rc7 allows attackers to have an unspecified     impact via a crafted HDLC packet that arrives over ISDN     and triggers a buffer under-read. (CVE-2009-4005)

  - A negative offset in a ioctl in the GDTH RAID driver was     fixed. (CVE-2009-3080)

  - 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)

  - Memory leak in the appletalk subsystem in the Linux     kernel when the appletalk and ipddp modules are loaded     but the ipddp'N' device is not found, allows remote     attackers to cause a denial of service (memory     consumption) via IP-DDP datagrams. (CVE-2009-2903)

  - net/1/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)

  - The tcf_fill_node function in net/sched/cls_api.c in the     netlink subsystem in the Linux kernel 2.6.x before     2.6.32-rc5, and 2.4.37.6 and earlier, does not     initialize a certain tcm__pad2 structure member, which     might allow local users to obtain sensitive information     from kernel memory via unspecified vectors. NOTE: this     issue existed because of an incomplete fix for     CVE-2005-4881. (CVE-2009-3612 / CVE-2005-4881)

  - The ATI Rage 128 (aka r128) driver in the Linux kernel     does not properly verify Concurrent Command Engine (CCE)     state initialization, which allows local users to cause     a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system     crash) or possibly gain privileges via unspecified ioctl     calls. (CVE-2009-3620)

  - The nfs4_proc_lock function in fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c in the     NFSv4 client in the Linux kernel allows remote NFS     servers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer     dereference and panic) by sending a certain response     containing incorrect file attributes, which trigger     attempted use of an open file that lacks NFSv4 state.
    (CVE-2009-3726)

The rio and sx serial multiport card drivers were disabled via a modprobe blacklist due to severe bugs.

For a full list of changes, please read the RPM changelog.

The SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Kernel was updated to 2.6.27.39 fixing various bugs and security issues.

The following security issues have been fixed :

  - A race condition during pipe open could be used by local     attackers to cause a denial of service. (Due to     mmap_min_addr protection enabled by default, code     execution is not possible.). (CVE-2009-3547)

  - On x86_64 systems a information leak of high register     contents (upper 32bit) was fixed. (CVE-2009-2910)

  - Memory leak in the appletalk subsystem in the Linux     kernel when the appletalk and ipddp modules are loaded     but the ipddp'N' device is not found, allows remote     attackers to cause a denial of service (memory     consumption) via IP-DDP datagrams. (CVE-2009-2903)

  - net/1/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)

  - The tcf_fill_node function in net/sched/cls_api.c in the     netlink subsystem in the Linux kernel 2.6.x before     2.6.32-rc5, and 2.4.37.6 and earlier, does not     initialize a certain tcm__pad2 structure member, which     might allow local users to obtain sensitive information     from kernel memory via unspecified vectors. NOTE: this     issue existed because of an incomplete fix for     CVE-2005-4881. (CVE-2009-3612 / CVE-2005-4881)

  - The ATI Rage 128 (aka r128) driver in the Linux kernel     does not properly verify Concurrent Command Engine (CCE)     state initialization, which allows local users to cause     a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system     crash) or possibly gain privileges via unspecified ioctl     calls. (CVE-2009-3620)

  - The nfs4_proc_lock function in fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c in the     NFSv4 client in the Linux kernel allows remote NFS     servers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer     dereference and panic) by sending a certain response     containing incorrect file attributes, which trigger     attempted use of an open file that lacks NFSv4 state.
    (CVE-2009-3726)

  - Sv4 in the Linux kernel does not properly clean up an     inode when an O_EXCL create fails, which causes files to     be created with insecure settings such as setuid bits,     and possibly allows local users to gain privileges,     related to the execution of the do_open_permission     function even when a create fails. (CVE-2009-3286)

CVE-2005-4881 kernel: netlink: fix numerous padding memleaks

CVE-2009-3228 kernel: tc: uninitialised kernel memory leak

This update fixes the following security issues :

  - multiple, missing initialization flaws were found in the     Linux kernel. Padding data in several core network     structures was not initialized properly before being     sent to user-space. These flaws could lead to     information leaks. (CVE-2005-4881, CVE-2009-3228,     Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

  - a packet duplication issue was fixed via the     RHSA-2008:0665 update; however, the fix introduced a     problem for systems using network bonding: Backup slaves     were unable to receive ARP packets. When using network     bonding in the 'active-backup' mode and with the     'arp_validate=3' option, the bonding driver considered     such backup slaves as being down (since they were not     receiving ARP packets), preventing successful failover     to these devices. (BZ#519384)

  - due to insufficient memory barriers in the network code,     a process sleeping in select() may have missed     notifications about new data. In rare cases, this bug     may have caused a process to sleep forever. (BZ#519386)

  - the driver version number in the ata_piix driver was not     changed between Scientific Linux 4.7 and Scientific     Linux 4.8, even though changes had been made between     these releases. This could have prevented the driver     from loading on systems that check driver versions, as     this driver appeared older than it was. (BZ#519389)

  - a bug in nlm_lookup_host() could have led to     un-reclaimed locks on file systems, resulting in the     umount command failing. This bug could have also     prevented NFS services from being relocated correctly in     clustered environments. (BZ#519656)

  - the data buffer ethtool_get_strings() allocated, for the     igb driver, was smaller than the amount of data that was     copied in igb_get_strings(), because of a miscalculation     in IGB_QUEUE_STATS_LEN, resulting in memory corruption.
    This bug could have led to a kernel panic. (BZ#522738)

  - in some situations, write operations to a TTY device     were blocked even when the O_NONBLOCK flag was used. A     reported case of this issue occurred when a single TTY     device was opened by two users (one using blocking mode,     and the other using non-blocking mode). (BZ#523930)

  - a deadlock was found in the cciss driver. In rare cases,     this caused an NMI lockup during boot. Messages such as     'cciss: controller cciss[x] failed, stopping.' and     'cciss[x]: controller not responding.' may have been     displayed on the console. (BZ#525725)

  - on 64-bit PowerPC systems, a rollover bug in the ibmveth     driver could have caused a kernel panic. In a reported     case, this panic occurred on a system with a large     uptime and under heavy network load. (BZ#527225)

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

From Red Hat Security Advisory 2009:1522 :

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

This update has been rated as having moderate security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

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

This update fixes the following security issues :

* multiple, missing initialization flaws were found in the Linux kernel. Padding data in several core network structures was not initialized properly before being sent to user-space. These flaws could lead to information leaks. (CVE-2005-4881, CVE-2009-3228, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs :

* a packet duplication issue was fixed via the RHSA-2008:0665 update;
however, the fix introduced a problem for systems using network bonding: Backup slaves were unable to receive ARP packets. When using network bonding in the 'active-backup' mode and with the 'arp_validate=3' option, the bonding driver considered such backup slaves as being down (since they were not receiving ARP packets), preventing successful failover to these devices. (BZ#519384)

* due to insufficient memory barriers in the network code, a process sleeping in select() may have missed notifications about new data. In rare cases, this bug may have caused a process to sleep forever.
(BZ#519386)

* the driver version number in the ata_piix driver was not changed between Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8, even though changes had been made between these releases. This could have prevented the driver from loading on systems that check driver versions, as this driver appeared older than it was. (BZ#519389)

* a bug in nlm_lookup_host() could have led to un-reclaimed locks on file systems, resulting in the umount command failing. This bug could have also prevented NFS services from being relocated correctly in clustered environments. (BZ#519656)

* the data buffer ethtool_get_strings() allocated, for the igb driver, was smaller than the amount of data that was copied in igb_get_strings(), because of a miscalculation in IGB_QUEUE_STATS_LEN, resulting in memory corruption. This bug could have led to a kernel panic. (BZ#522738)

* in some situations, write operations to a TTY device were blocked even when the O_NONBLOCK flag was used. A reported case of this issue occurred when a single TTY device was opened by two users (one using blocking mode, and the other using non-blocking mode). (BZ#523930)

* a deadlock was found in the cciss driver. In rare cases, this caused an NMI lockup during boot. Messages such as 'cciss: controller cciss[x] failed, stopping.' and 'cciss[x]: controller not responding.' may have been displayed on the console. (BZ#525725)

* on 64-bit PowerPC systems, a rollover bug in the ibmveth driver could have caused a kernel panic. In a reported case, this panic occurred on a system with a large uptime and under heavy network load.
(BZ#527225)

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.

The openSUSE 11.1 Kernel was updated to 2.6.27.39 fixing various bugs and security issues.

Following security issues have been fixed: CVE-2009-3547: A race condition during pipe open could be used by local attackers to cause a denial of service. (Due to mmap_min_addr protection enabled by default, code execution is not possible.)

CVE-2009-2910: On x86_64 systems a information leak of high register contents (upper 32bit) was fixed.

CVE-2009-2903: Memory leak in the appletalk subsystem in the Linux kernel when the appletalk and ipddp modules are loaded but the ipddp'N' device is not found, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via IP-DDP datagrams.

CVE-2009-3621: 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-2009-3612 / CVE-2005-4881: The tcf_fill_node function in net/sched/cls_api.c in the netlink subsystem in the Linux kernel 2.6.x before 2.6.32-rc5, and 2.4.37.6 and earlier, does not initialize a certain tcm__pad2 structure member, which might allow local users to obtain sensitive information from kernel memory via unspecified vectors. NOTE: this issue existed because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2005-4881.

CVE-2009-3620: The ATI Rage 128 (aka r128) driver in the Linux kernel does not properly verify Concurrent Command Engine (CCE) state initialization, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly gain privileges via unspecified ioctl calls.

CVE-2009-3726: The nfs4_proc_lock function in fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c in the NFSv4 client in the Linux kernel allows remote NFS servers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and panic) by sending a certain response containing incorrect file attributes, which trigger attempted use of an open file that lacks NFSv4 state.

CVE-2009-3286: Sv4 in the Linux kernel does not properly clean up an inode when an O_EXCL create fails, which causes files to be created with insecure settings such as setuid bits, and possibly allows local users to gain privileges, related to the execution of the do_open_permission function even when a create fails.

The remote CentOS system is missing a security update which has been documented in Red Hat advisory RHSA-2009-1522.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Published	Updated	Severity
42216	RHEL 4 : kernel (RHSA-2009:1522)	Nessus	Red Hat Local Security Checks	10/23/2009	1/14/2021	medium
59143	SuSE 10 Security Update : the Linux Kernel (x86_64) (ZYPP Patch Number 6730)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	5/17/2012	1/14/2021	high
59142	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux Kernel (x86_64) (ZYPP Patch Number 6697)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	5/17/2012	1/14/2021	high
42990	SuSE 11 Security Update : Linux kernel (SAT Patch Numbers 1581 / 1588 / 1591)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	12/3/2009	1/14/2021	high
42257	CentOS 4 : kernel (CESA-2009:1522)	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	10/27/2009	1/4/2021	medium
43398	SuSE 10 Security Update : the Linux Kernel (i386) (ZYPP Patch Number 6726)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	12/23/2009	1/14/2021	high
49868	SuSE 10 Security Update : Linux Kernel (x86) (ZYPP Patch Number 6694)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	10/11/2010	1/14/2021	high
60682	Scientific Linux Security Update : kernel on SL4.x i386/x86_64	Nessus	Scientific Linux Local Security Checks	8/1/2012	1/14/2021	medium
67945	Oracle Linux 4 : kernel (ELSA-2009-1522)	Nessus	Oracle Linux Local Security Checks	7/12/2013	8/24/2021	medium
42952	openSUSE Security Update : kernel (kernel-1593)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	12/1/2009	1/14/2021	high
801478	CentOS RHSA-2009-1522 Security Check	Log Correlation Engine	Generic			high

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