RHSA-2009:1671 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues 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.

This update fixes the following security issues:

• a flaw was found in the Realtek r8169 Ethernet driver in the Linux

kernel. pci_unmap_single() presented a memory leak that could lead to IOMMU
space exhaustion and a system crash. An attacker on the local network could
trigger this flaw by using jumbo frames for large amounts of network
traffic. (CVE-2009-3613, Important)

• NULL pointer dereference flaws were found in the r128 driver in the Linux

kernel. Checks to test if the Concurrent Command Engine state was
initialized were missing in private IOCTL functions. An attacker could use
these flaws to cause a local denial of service or escalate their
privileges. (CVE-2009-3620, Important)

• an information leak was found in the Linux kernel. On AMD64 systems,

32-bit processes could access and read certain 64-bit registers by
temporarily switching themselves to 64-bit mode. (CVE-2009-2910, Moderate)

• the unix_stream_connect() function in the Linux kernel did not check if a

UNIX domain socket was in the shutdown state. This could lead to a
deadlock. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial
of service. (CVE-2009-3621, Moderate)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• an iptables rule with the recent module and a hit count value greater

than the ip_pkt_list_tot parameter (the default is 20), did not have any
effect over packets, as the hit count could not be reached. (BZ#529306)

• in environments that use dual-controller storage devices with the cciss

driver, Device-Mapper Multipath maps could not be detected and configured,
due to the cciss driver not exporting the bus attribute via sysfs. This
attribute is now exported. (BZ#529309)

• the kernel crashed with a divide error when a certain joystick was

attached. (BZ#532027)

• a bug in the mptctl_do_mpt_command() function in the mpt driver may have

resulted in crashes during boot on i386 systems with certain adapters using
the mpt driver, and also running the hugemem kernel. (BZ#533798)

• on certain hardware, the igb driver was unable to detect link statuses

correctly. This may have caused problems for network bonding, such as
failover not occurring. (BZ#534105)

• the RHSA-2009:1024 update introduced a regression. After updating to Red

Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8 and rebooting, network links often failed to be
brought up for interfaces using the forcedeth driver. "no link during
initialization" messages may have been logged. (BZ#534112)

• the RHSA-2009:1024 update introduced a second regression. On certain

systems, PS/2 keyboards failed to work. (BZ#537344)

• a bug in checksum offload calculations could have crashed the bnx2x

firmware when the iptable_nat module was loaded, causing network traffic
to stop. (BZ#537013)

• a check has been added to the IPv4 code to make sure that the routing

table data structure, rt, is not NULL, to help prevent future bugs in
functions that call ip_append_data() from being exploitable. (BZ#537016)

• possible kernel pointer dereferences on systems with several NFS mounts

(a mixture of "-o lock" and "-o nolock"), which in rare cases may have
caused a system crash, have been resolved. (BZ#537017)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these issues. 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

• 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 4.8 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 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 4.8 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.8 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 4.8 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 526788 - CVE-2009-2910 kernel: x86_64 32 bit process register leak
• BZ - 529137 - CVE-2009-3613 kernel: flood ping cause out-of-iommu error and panic when mtu larger than 1500
• BZ - 529306 - kernel: ipt_recent: sanity check hit count [rhel-4.9] [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 529309 - CCISS device-mapper-multipath support: missing sysfs attributes [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 529597 - CVE-2009-3620 kernel: r128 IOCTL NULL pointer dereferences when CCE state is uninitialised
• BZ - 529626 - CVE-2009-3621 kernel: AF_UNIX: Fix deadlock on connecting to shutdown socket
• BZ - 532027 - kernel hid-input.c divide error crash [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 533798 - [Cisco/LSI 4.8.z bug] mptctl module dereferences a userspace address, triggering a crash [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 534105 - EL4.8: igb driver fails to detect link status change on SERDES interface [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 534112 - Upgrade from RHEL4U7 to U8 fails to bring up networking with forcedeth driver. [simple patch] [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 537013 - bnx2x fails when iptables is on [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 537016 - kernel: ipv4: make ip_append_data() handle NULL routing table [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 537017 - NLM: Fix Oops in nlmclnt_mark_reclaim() [rhel-4.8.z]
• BZ - 537344 - RHEL4.8 regression: PS/2 keyboard doesn't work on PRIMERGY TX120S1 [rhel-4.8.z]

CVEs

• CVE-2009-3613
• CVE-2009-2910
• CVE-2009-3621
• CVE-2009-3620

References

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