Synopsis

Updated kernel packages address security vulnerabilities, bugfixes

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Important

Topic

Updated kernel packages that address various security vulnerabilities, fix a
number of bugs, and update various drivers are now available.

Description

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.

The execve system call in Linux 2.4.x records the file descriptor of the
executable process in the file table of the calling process, which allows
local users to gain read access to restricted file descriptors. The Common
Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name
CAN-2003-0476 to this issue.

A number of bugfixes are included, including important fixes for the ext3
file system and timer code.

New features include limited support for non-cached NFS file sytems, Serial
ATA (SATA) devices, and new alt-sysreq debugging options.

In addition, the following drivers have been updated:

• e100 2.3.30-k1
  
• e1000 5.2.20-k1
  
• fusion 2.05.05+
  
• ips 6.10.52
  
• aic7xxx 6.2.36
  
• aic79xxx 1.3.10
  
• megaraid 2 2.00.9
  
• cciss 2.4.49
  

All users are advised to upgrade to these erratum packages, which contain
backported patches addressing these issues.

Solution

Release notes, driver notes, and driver disks for this update are available
at the following URL:

http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/rhel/

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

The procedure for upgrading the kernel manually is documented at:

http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/howto/kernel-upgrade/

Please read the directions for your architecture carefully before
proceeding with the kernel upgrade.

Please note that this update is also available via Red Hat Network. Many
people find this to be an easier way to apply updates. To use Red Hat
Network, launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:

up2date

This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate
RPMs being upgraded on your system. Note that you need to select the kernel
explicitly on default configurations of up2date.

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 2 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 2 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 74516 - NFS DATA CORRUPTION
• BZ - 75669 - SG queue function getting null pointer
• BZ - 84452 - RHEL AS2.1 QU3 errata: System hangs with 2.1 AS (timer.c)
• BZ - 90872 - md device can be stopped when it should return -EBUSY
• BZ - 99203 - NFS tcp client retransmission with large wsize.

CVEs

• CVE-2003-0476

References

(none)

This erratum does not contain any packages.