1.74.8. RHSA-2011:0303: Moderate kernel security and bug fix update

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

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate 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 flaw was found in the Linux kernel's garbage collector for AF_UNIX sockets. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4249, Moderate)

* A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's networking subsystem. If the number of packets received exceeded the receiver's buffer limit, they were queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

* A missing initialization flaw was found in the ethtool_get_regs() function in the Linux kernel's ethtool IOCTL handler. A local user who has the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability could use this flaw to cause an information leak. (CVE-2010-4655, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Vegard Nossum for reporting CVE-2010-4249, and Kees Cook for reporting CVE-2010-4655.

This update also fixes several bugs and adds various enhancements. Documentation for these bug fixes and enhancements is available in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 Technical Notes.

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues, and fix the bugs noted in the Technical Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.