RHSA-2014:1025 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix one security issue and one bug 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.

• A flaw was found in the way the pppol2tp_setsockopt() and

pppol2tp_getsockopt() functions in the Linux kernel's PPP over L2TP
implementation handled requests with a non-SOL_PPPOL2TP socket option
level. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to escalate their
privileges on the system. (CVE-2014-4943, Important)

Red Hat would like to thank Sasha Levin for reporting this issue.

This update also fixes the following bug:

• When a device was registered to a bus, a race condition could occur

between the device being added to the list of devices of the bus and
binding the device to a driver. As a result, the device could already be
bound to a driver which led to a warning and incorrect reference counting,
and consequently to a kernel panic on device removal. To avoid the race
condition, this update adds a check to identify an already bound device.
(BZ#1114409)

All kernel users are advised to 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 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 - 1119458 - CVE-2014-4943 kernel: net: pppol2tp: level handling in pppol2tp_[s,g]etsockopt()

CVEs

• CVE-2014-4943

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important