RHBA-2014:1464 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated valgrind packages that fix several bugs are now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The valgrind packages provide the Valgrind programming tool that helps detect
memory-management problems in programs. Valgrind is used for debugging memory,
detecting memory leaks, and profiling.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, the Valgrind tool did not recognize that certain older i386 AMD

Athlon processors supported the PREFETCH instruction from the MmxExt instruction
set. As a consequence, Valgrind displayed an error message about an unsupported
instruction after running an application under Valgrind on the i386 architecture
that used PREFETCH. Valgrind has been updated to recognize which processors
implement the MmxExt instruction set. As a result, applications now run as
expected under Valgrind on i386 using PREFETCH. (BZ#828341)

• Prior to this update, on the IBM System z architecture, Valgrind could

incorrectly report that it supported the KIMD Message-Security Assist (MSA)
instruction extension even when it was the host machine that supported MSA, not
Valgrind. Consequently, a program could use some instructions that Valgrind did
not support, which caused the system to terminate that program. With this
update, Valgrind no longer considers the instruction sets supported by the host
machine. As a result, programs executed under Valgrind now run as expected in
the described situation. (BZ#881893)

• Previously, Valgrind did not support the [lf]setxattr system calls on Linux

kernels for the 32-bit PowerPC and 64-bit PowerPC architectures. Consequently,
programs using [lf]setxattr displayed warning and error messages. With this
patch, Valgrind has been updated to recognize [lf]setxattr, and programs using
[lf]setxattr now run under Valgrind on 32-bit PowerPC and 64-bit PowerPC without
displaying warnings or errors. (BZ#1007400)

• Prior to this update, Valgrind did not correctly recognize the MOVNTDQA

instruction from the Intel Streaming SIMD Extension 4 (Intel SSE4) instruction
set. As a consequence, programs using MOVNTDQA terminated unexpectedly when
executed under Valgrind. With this update, the problem has been fixed, and
programs using MOVNTDQA now run as expected under Valgrind. (BZ#1012932)

• Prior to this update, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 signal handlers were executed

on a misaligned stack when used on the AMD64 and Intel 64 architectures.
Consequently, instructions that require 16-byte data alignment terminated
unexpectedly. This update fixes the stack pointer alignment, and invoking a
signal on the AMD64 and Intel 64 architectures is now executed properly.
(BZ#1024162)

• Previously, Valgrind did not support the dup3 system calls on the PowerPC

architecture kernels. As a consequence, programs using dup3 displayed warning
and error messages when running under Valgrind. A patch has been applied to fix
this problem, and Valgrind now handles dup3 properly. Programs using dup3 now
run under Valgrind on PowerPC without displaying warnings or errors.
(BZ#1101422)

• Previously, the Memcheck memory error detector on i386 did not correctly

handle some address accesses used by the bcopy() function, a converted version
of the memcpy() function, which is contained in the GNU C Library (glibc).
Consequently, using glibc bcopy() in i386 binary files running under Valgrind
could report an invalid address access. Memcheck has now been updated to handle
this instance of bcopy() correctly. Programs using bcopy() or memcpy() no longer
display warnings about an invalid access in the described situation.
(BZ#1120021)

• Prior to this update, Valgrind did not support the prctl system calls on

64-bit PowerPC Linux kernels. As a consequence, programs using prctl displayed
warning and error messages when running under Valgrind. Valgrind has now been
updated to recognize prctl, and programs using prctl no longer display warnings
or errors in the described situation. (BZ#1126483)

Users of valgrind are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix
these bugs.

Solution

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

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 828341 - unhandled instruction bytes: 0xF 0x18 0x9 0x8B i686 PREFETCH instruction
• BZ - 881893 - vex s390->IR: unimplemented insn: B93E 0002 (s390x) KIMD message-security assist (MSA) instruction extension
• BZ - 1007400 - /CoreOS/tar/Regression/bz518079-memory-leak-in-tar-xattr fails on ppc64
• BZ - 1024162 - valgrind causes crashes in signal handlers on x86_64
• BZ - 1100645 - Test case drd/tests/annotate_trace_memory enters infinite loop
• BZ - 1101422 - s390x WARNING: unhandled syscall: 326 (dup3)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)