RHSA-2015:0284 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and several bugs
are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 Extended Update Support.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Important security
impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give
detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the
CVE links in the References section.

Description

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

• A race condition flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's KVM

subsystem handled PIT (Programmable Interval Timer) emulation. A guest user
who has access to the PIT I/O ports could use this flaw to crash the host.
(CVE-2014-3611, Important)

• A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's SCTP implementation

validated INIT chunks when performing Address Configuration Change
(ASCONF). A remote attacker could use this flaw to crash the system by
sending a specially crafted SCTP packet to trigger a NULL pointer
dereference on the system. (CVE-2014-7841, Important)

• A flaw was found in the way the ipc_rcu_putref() function in the Linux

kernel's IPC implementation handled reference counter decrementing.
A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger an Out of Memory
(OOM) condition and, potentially, crash the system. (CVE-2013-4483,
Moderate)

• A memory corruption flaw was found in the way the USB ConnectTech

WhiteHEAT serial driver processed completion commands sent via USB Request
Blocks buffers. An attacker with physical access to the system could use
this flaw to crash the system or, potentially, escalate their privileges on
the system. (CVE-2014-3185, Moderate)

• It was found that the Linux kernel's KVM subsystem did not handle the VM

exits gracefully for the invept (Invalidate Translations Derived from EPT)
and invvpid (Invalidate Translations Based on VPID) instructions. On hosts
with an Intel processor and invept/invppid VM exit support, an unprivileged
guest user could use these instructions to crash the guest. (CVE-2014-3645,
CVE-2014-3646, Moderate)

• A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's netfilter subsystem

handled generic protocol tracking. As demonstrated in the Stream Control
Transmission Protocol (SCTP) case, a remote attacker could use this flaw to
bypass intended iptables rule restrictions when the associated connection
tracking module was not loaded on the system. (CVE-2014-8160, Moderate)

Red Hat would like to thank Lars Bull of Google for reporting
CVE-2014-3611, Vladimir Davydov (Parallels) for reporting CVE-2013-4483,
and the Advanced Threat Research team at Intel Security for reporting
CVE-2014-3645 and CVE-2014-3646. The CVE-2014-7841 issue was discovered by
Liu Wei of Red Hat.

Bug fixes:

• When forwarding a packet, the iptables target TCPOPTSTRIP used the

tcp_hdr() function to locate the option space. Consequently, TCPOPTSTRIP
located the incorrect place in the packet, and therefore did not match
options for stripping. TCPOPTSTRIP now uses the TCP header itself to locate
the option space, and the options are now properly stripped. (BZ#1172026)

• The ipset utility computed incorrect values of timeouts from an old IP

set, and these values were then supplied to a new IP set. A resize on an IP
set with a timeouts option enabled could then supply corrupted data from an
old IP set. This bug has been fixed by properly reading timeout values from
an old set before supplying them to a new set. (BZ#1172763)

• Incorrect processing of errors from the BCM5719 LAN controller could

result in incoming packets being dropped. Now, received errors are handled
properly, and incoming packets are no longer randomly dropped. (BZ#1180405)

• When the NVMe driver allocated a name-space queue, it was recognized as a

request-based driver, whereas it was a BIO-based driver. While trying to
access data during the loading of NVMe along with a request-based DM
device, the system could terminate unexpectedly or become unresponsive.
Now, NVMe does not set the QUEUE_FLAG_STACKABLE flag during the allocation
of a name-space queue, and the system no longer attempts to insert a
request into the queue, preventing a crash. (BZ#1180554)

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.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 6.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 6.5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 6.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 6.5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 6.5 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 6.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI 6.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI 6.5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 6.5 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 1024854 - CVE-2013-4483 kernel: ipc: ipc_rcu_putref refcount races
• BZ - 1141400 - CVE-2014-3185 Kernel: USB serial: memory corruption flaw
• BZ - 1144825 - CVE-2014-3646 kernel: kvm: vmx: invvpid vm exit not handled
• BZ - 1144835 - CVE-2014-3645 kernel: kvm: vmx: invept vm exit not handled
• BZ - 1144878 - CVE-2014-3611 kernel: kvm: PIT timer race condition
• BZ - 1163087 - CVE-2014-7841 kernel: net: sctp: NULL pointer dereference in af->from_addr_param on malformed packet
• BZ - 1182059 - CVE-2014-8160 kernel: iptables restriction bypass if a protocol handler kernel module not loaded

CVEs

• CVE-2013-4483
• CVE-2014-3185
• CVE-2014-3611
• CVE-2014-3646
• CVE-2014-3645
• CVE-2014-7841
• CVE-2014-8160

References

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