RHSA-2006:0574 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix a privilege escalation security issue in
the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel are now available.

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

Description

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

During security research, Red Hat discovered a behavioral flaw in core dump
handling. A local user could create a program that would cause a core file
to be dumped into a directory they would not normally have permissions to
write to. This could lead to a denial of service (disk consumption), or
allow the local user to gain root privileges. (CVE-2006-2451)

Prior to applying this update, users can remove the ability to escalate
privileges using this flaw by configuring core files to dump to an absolute
location. By default, core files are created in the working directory of
the faulting application, but this can be overridden by specifying an
absolute location for core files in /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern. To
avoid a potential denial of service, a separate partition for the core
files should be used.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users are advised to upgrade their kernels
to the packages associated with their machine architectures and
configurations as listed in this erratum.

Solution

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

This update is available via Red Hat Network. 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.

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 195902 - CVE-2006-2451 Possible privilege escalation through prctl() and suid_dumpable

CVEs

• CVE-2006-2451

References

• http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_52_2890.shtm
• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important