Synopsis

Important: kernel security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Important

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix one security issue are now available for
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 Advanced Update Support.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having
Important security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the
CVE link in the References section.

Description

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

• It was found that the Linux kernel's ptrace subsystem allowed a traced

process' instruction pointer to be set to a non-canonical memory address
without forcing the non-sysret code path when returning to user space.
A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system or,
potentially, escalate their privileges on the system. (CVE-2014-4699,
Important)

Note: The CVE-2014-4699 issue only affected systems using an Intel CPU.

Red Hat would like to thank Andy Lutomirski for reporting this issue.

All kernel users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain a backported patch to correct this issue. The system must be
rebooted for this update to take effect.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the
Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

To install kernel packages manually, use "rpm -ivh [package]". Do not use
"rpm -Uvh" as that will remove the running kernel binaries from your
system. You may use "rpm -e" to remove old kernels after determining that
the new kernel functions properly on your system.

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 6.2 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 1115927 - CVE-2014-4699 kernel: x86_64: ptrace: sysret to non-canonical address

CVEs

• CVE-2014-4699

References