RHSA-2008:0607 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix a security issue and several bugs are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

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

Description

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

These updated packages fix the following security issue:

• a possible kernel memory leak was found in the Linux kernel Simple

Internet Transition (SIT) INET6 implementation. This could allow a local
unprivileged user to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2136, Important)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bugs:

• a possible kernel hang on hugemem systems, due to a bug in NFS, which may

have caused systems to become unresponsive, has been resolved.

• an inappropriate exit condition occurred in the architecture-specific

"mmap()" realization, which fell into an infinite loop under certain
conditions. On 64-bit systems, this issue may have manifested itself to
users as a soft lockup, or process hangs.

• due to a bug in hardware initialization in the "ohci_hcd" kernel module,

the kernel may have failed with a NULL pointer dereference. On 64-bit
PowerPC systems, this may have caused booting to fail, and drop to xmon. On
other platforms, a kernel oops occurred.

• due to insufficient locks in task termination code, a panic may have

occurred in the "sys_times()" system call on SMP machines.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

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
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

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 for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.6 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.6 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 IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.6 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 4.6 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 446031 - CVE-2008-2136 kernel: sit memory leak
• BZ - 450185 - [RHEL 4] cffimtgsaslx08 hung
• BZ - 450760 - Patch for bug 360281 "Odd behaviour in mmap" introduces regression
• BZ - 450865 - kernel failed to boot and dropped to xmon
• BZ - 455072 - kernel panic with kernel version 2.6.9-67.0.20.EL

CVEs

• CVE-2008-2136

References

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