Synopsis

kernel security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Important

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix several security issues in the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 3 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.

These new kernel packages contain fixes for the security issues described
below:

• a flaw in the IPC shared-memory implementation that allowed a local user
  to cause a denial of service (deadlock) that resulted in freezing the
  system (CVE-2006-4342, Important)
  
• an information leak in the copy_from_user() implementation on s390 and
  s390x platforms that allowed a local user to read arbitrary kernel memory
  (CVE-2006-5174, Important)
  
• a flaw in the ATM subsystem affecting systems with installed ATM
  hardware and configured ATM support that allowed a remote user to cause
  a denial of service (panic) by accessing socket buffer memory after it
  has been freed (CVE-2006-4997, Moderate)
  
• a directory traversal vulnerability in smbfs that allowed a local user
  to escape chroot restrictions for an SMB-mounted filesystem via "..\\"
  sequences (CVE-2006-1864, Moderate)
  
• a flaw in the mprotect system call that allowed enabling write permission
  for a read-only attachment of shared memory (CVE-2006-2071, Moderate)
  
• a flaw in the DVD handling of the CDROM driver that could be used
  together with a custom built USB device to gain root privileges
  (CVE-2006-2935, Moderate)
  

In addition to the security issues described above, a bug fix for a clock
skew problem (which could lead to unintended keyboard repeat under X11)
was also included. The problem only occurred when running the 32-bit x86
kernel on 64-bit dual-core x86_64 hardware.

Note: The kernel-unsupported package contains various drivers and modules
that are unsupported and therefore might contain security problems that
have not been addressed.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade their kernels
to the packages associated with their machine architecture 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 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 3 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 169428 - repetitive keystroke issue on both RH3 U5 32bit and RH4 U1 32bit.
• BZ - 189436 - CVE-2006-1864 smbfs chroot issue
• BZ - 190074 - CVE-2006-2071 mprotect gives write permission to a readonly attachment
• BZ - 197672 - CVE-2006-2935 Possible buffer overflow in DVD handling
• BZ - 205618 - CVE-2006-4342 shmat hangs by simultaneous shmctl(IPC_RMID)
• BZ - 206270 - CVE-2006-4997 IP over ATM clip_mkip dereference freed pointer
• BZ - 209436 - CVE-2006-5174 copy_from_user information leak on s390

CVEs

• CVE-2006-1864
• CVE-2006-2071
• CVE-2006-2935
• CVE-2006-4997
• CVE-2006-5174
• CVE-2006-4342

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important

This erratum does not contain any packages.