Synopsis

Important: kernel-rt security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Important

Topic

Updated kernel-rt packages that fix several security issues and several
bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise MRG 1.1.

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

Description

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

These updated packages address the following security issues:

• a memory leak exists in keyctl handling. A local, unprivileged user could
  use this flaw to deplete kernel memory, eventually leading to a denial of
  service. (CVE-2009-0031, Important)
  
• an off-by-one underflow flaw was found in the eCryptfs subsystem. This
  could potentially cause a denial of service when the readlink() function
  returned an error. (CVE-2009-0269, Moderate)
  
• a deficiency was found in the Remote BIOS Update (RBU) driver for Dell
  systems. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of
  service by reading zero bytes from the image_type or packet_size files in
  "/sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/". (CVE-2009-0322, Moderate)
  
• an inverted logic flaw was found in the SysKonnect FDDI PCI adapter
  driver, allowing driver statistics to be reset only when the CAP_NET_ADMIN
  capability was absent (local, unprivileged users could reset driver
  statistics). (CVE-2009-0675, Moderate)
  
• the sock_getsockopt() function in the Linux kernel did not properly
  initialize a data structure that can be directly returned to user-space
  when the getsockopt() function is called with SO_BSDCOMPAT optname set.
  This flaw could possibly lead to memory disclosure.
  (CVE-2009-0676, Moderate)
  

These updated packages also address numerous bugs, including the following:

• the select() and poll() functions were converted to use high resolution
  timers (hrtimer). Since the change, the system call pselect7() started
  presenting an incorrect behavior when the specified timeout was NULL.
  Instead of blocking until an event happened (infinite timeout) it was
  treated as a no timeout (zero seconds). This update fixes the problem.
  (BZ#487382)
  
• NFS is a network file system sharing technology commonly used on Linux
  systems. A bug exists in the Linux kernel implementation of NFS. When two
  (or more) clients have the same file open as it is being written to, a
  fault condition can arise triggering a system crash. This update resolves
  this bug. (BZ#486645)
  
• a bug affected IBM BladeCenter LS21 machines with the High Precision
  Event Timer (HPET) enabled in the BIOS. In these machines, the HPET_T0_CFG
  register booted with level-triggered interrupts (HPET_TN_LEVEL) enabled.
  This resulted in a boot-time hang during the delay calibration. This kernel
  resolves the issue by disabling HPET_TN_LEVEL when setting up periodic
  mode. (BZ#485428)
  
• Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is the preferred time source for MRG Realtime
  systems, although some TSC models do not comply with the requirements of a
  Realtime system. This kernel updates the tests carried out during boot time
  to check the TSC. (BZ#480244)
  
• under certain conditions netlink_broadcast may call yield() on behalf of
  a high priority kernel thread. This can lead to a system deadlock. The
  issue has been resolved. (BZ#463207)
  

Other changes included with this update are noted in the Red Hat Enterprise
MRG Release Notes, available at the location noted in the References
section below.

All Red Hat Enterprise MRG users should install this update which addresses
these vulnerabilities and fixes these bugs. For this update to take effect,
the system must be rebooted.

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/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• MRG Realtime 1 x86_64
• MRG Realtime 1 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 480592 - CVE-2009-0031 kernel: local denial of service in keyctl_join_session_keyring
• BZ - 481604 - CVE-2009-0269 kernel: ecryptfs readlink flaw
• BZ - 482866 - CVE-2009-0322 kernel: dell_rbu local oops
• BZ - 486305 - CVE-2009-0676 kernel: memory disclosure in SO_BSDCOMPAT gsopt
• BZ - 486534 - CVE-2009-0675 kernel: skfp_ioctl inverted logic flaw
• BZ - 486645 - [NFS] Bug in shared page handling over NFS
• BZ - 485428 - IBM LS20/LS21 blades fail to boot RT kernel when HPET enabled in BIOS
• BZ - 487382 - pselect with timeout=NULL triggers a warning at kernel/hrtimer.c:439 hrtimer_reprogram()

CVEs

• CVE-2009-0322
• CVE-2009-0031
• CVE-2009-0269
• CVE-2009-0675
• CVE-2009-0676

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_MRG/

This erratum does not contain any packages.