RHSA-2015:0695 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated kernel packages that fix multiple security issues and two bugs are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 Advanced 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 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)

• It was found that the Linux kernel's Infiniband subsystem did not

properly sanitize input parameters while registering memory regions from
user space via the (u)verbs API. A local user with access to a
/dev/infiniband/uverbsX device could use this flaw to crash the system or,
potentially, escalate their privileges on the system. (CVE-2014-8159,
Important)

• An integer overflow flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's Frame

Buffer device implementation mapped kernel memory to user space via the
mmap syscall. A local user able to access a frame buffer device file
(/dev/fb*) could possibly use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the
system. (CVE-2013-2596, Important)

• It was found that the parse_rock_ridge_inode_internal() function of the

Linux kernel's ISOFS implementation did not correctly check relocated
directories when processing Rock Ridge child link (CL) tags. An attacker
with physical access to the system could use a specially crafted ISO image
to crash the system or, potentially, escalate their privileges on the
system. (CVE-2014-5471, CVE-2014-5472, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Mellanox for reporting the CVE-2014-8159 issue.
The CVE-2014-7841 issue was discovered by Liu Wei of Red Hat.

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, certain network device drivers did not accept ethtool

commands right after they were loaded. As a consequence, the current
setting of the specified device driver was not applied and an error message
was returned. The ETHTOOL_DELAY variable has been added, which makes sure
the ethtool utility waits for some time before it tries to apply the
options settings, thus fixing the bug. (BZ#1138299)

• During the memory allocation for a new socket to communicate to the

server, the rpciod daemon released a clean page which needed to be
committed. However, the commit was queueing indefinitely as the commit
could only be provided with a socket connection. As a consequence, a
deadlock occurred in rpciod. This update sets the PF_FSTRANS flag on the
work queue task prior to the socket allocation, and adds the
nfs_release_page check for the flag when deciding whether to make a commit
call, thus fixing this bug. (BZ#1192326)

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 Server - AUS 6.2 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 1034490 - CVE-2013-2596 kernel: integer overflow in fb_mmap
• BZ - 1134099 - CVE-2014-5471 CVE-2014-5472 kernel: isofs: unbound recursion when processing relocated directories
• BZ - 1163087 - CVE-2014-7841 kernel: net: sctp: NULL pointer dereference in af->from_addr_param on malformed packet
• BZ - 1181166 - CVE-2014-8159 kernel: infiniband: uverbs: unprotected physical memory access

CVEs

• CVE-2014-5472
• CVE-2014-5471
• CVE-2013-2596
• CVE-2014-7841
• CVE-2014-8159

References

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