RHBA-2012:0695 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix two bugs are now available as part of the
ongoing support and maintenance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Extended Life
Cycle Support (ELS).

Description

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

This update fixes the following bugs:

• A race condition between the e1000 irq handler and e1000 netpoll handler could

lead to a deadlock while executing the netdump utility. The disable_irq_nosync()
function is now called to eliminate the potential deadlock situation.
(BZ#719820)

• The tcp_opt structures were previously allocated on the kernel stack in the

tcp_v4_conn_request() and tcp_v6_conn_request() routines, which could lead to
kernel stack overflows. This update reduces stack usage by moving the tcp_opt
structures to heap memory. (BZ#784415)

All users of kernel are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix
these bugs.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat
Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 4 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 719820 - Netdump sometimes hangs up on RHEL4.8 guest which uses e1000 emulation device.

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)