Topic

Updated kernel-rt packages that fix security issues, two bugs, and add two
enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise MRG 1.2.

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 fix the following security issues:

• a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the NFSv4 implementation in

the Linux kernel. Several of the NFSv4 file locking functions failed to
check whether a file had been opened on the server before performing
locking operations on it. A local user on a system with an NFSv4 share
mounted could possibly use this flaw to cause a denial of service or
escalate their privileges. (CVE-2009-3726, Important)

• permission issues were found in the megaraid_sas driver (for SAS based

RAID controllers) in the Linux kernel. The "dbg_lvl" and "poll_mode_io"
files on the sysfs file system ("/sys/") had world-writable permissions.
This could allow local, unprivileged users to change the behavior of the
driver. (CVE-2009-3889, CVE-2009-3939, Moderate)

These updated packages also fix the following bugs:

• a problem existed with the i5000_edac driver under some topologies. In

some cases, this driver failed to export memory devices via sysfs,
preventing the ibm-prtm service from starting. With this update, the memory
devices are accessible, allowing the ibm-prtm service to start, and
therefore perform SMI remediation as expected. (BZ#527421)

• the "/proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr" tunable helps prevent unprivileged

users from creating new memory mappings below the minimum address. The
sysctl value for mmap_min_addr could be changed by a process or user that
has an effective user ID (euid) of 0, even if the process or user does not
have the CAP_SYS_RAWIO capability. This update adds a capability check for
the CAP_SYS_RAWIO capability before allowing the mmap_min_addr value to be
changed. (BZ#534019)

As well, these updated packages add the following enhancements:

• the Intel ixgbe driver was updated to upstream version 2.0.16-k2.

(BZ#537505)

• the InfiniBand OFED driver was updated to upstream version 1.4.1.

(BZ#537500)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these issues and add these enhancements. The system must
be rebooted for this update to take effect.

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 - 526068 - CVE-2009-3889 CVE-2009-3939 kernel: megaraid_sas permissions in sysfs
• BZ - 527421 - HS21xm i5000_edac kernel topology fix
• BZ - 529227 - CVE-2009-3726 kernel: nfsv4: kernel panic in nfs4_proc_lock()
• BZ - 534019 - kernel: sysctl: require CAP_SYS_RAWIO to set mmap_min_addr [mrg-1]
• BZ - 537500 - Update Infiniband system to OFED 1.4.1
• BZ - 537505 - update Intel ixgbe driver to latest upstream version

CVEs

• CVE-2009-3889
• CVE-2009-3726
• CVE-2009-3939

References

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