The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.
These updated packages fix the following security issues:
the absence of a protection mechanism when attempting to access a
critical section of code has been found in the Linux kernel open file
descriptors control mechanism, fcntl. This could allow a local unprivileged
user to simultaneously execute code, which would otherwise be protected
against parallel execution. As well, a race condition when handling locks
in the Linux kernel fcntl functionality, may have allowed a process
belonging to a local unprivileged user to gain re-ordered access to the
descriptor table. (CVE-2008-1669, Important)
the absence of a protection mechanism when attempting to access a
critical section of code, as well as a race condition, have been found in
the Linux kernel file system event notifier, dnotify. This could allow a
local unprivileged user to get inconsistent data, or to send arbitrary
signals to arbitrary system processes. (CVE-2008-1375, Important)
Red Hat would like to thank Nick Piggin for responsibly disclosing the
following issue:
when accessing kernel memory locations, certain Linux kernel drivers
registering a fault handler did not perform required range checks. A local
unprivileged user could use this flaw to gain read or write access to
arbitrary kernel memory, or possibly cause a kernel crash.
(CVE-2008-0007, Important)
a flaw was found when performing asynchronous input or output operations
on a FIFO special file. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to
cause a kernel panic. (CVE-2007-5001, Important)
a flaw was found in the way core dump files were created. If a local user
could get a root-owned process to dump a core file into a directory, which
the user has write access to, they could gain read access to that core
file. This could potentially grant unauthorized access to sensitive
information. (CVE-2007-6206, Moderate)
a buffer overflow was found in the Linux kernel ISDN subsystem. A local
unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service.
(CVE-2007-6151, Moderate)
a race condition found in the mincore system core could allow a local
user to cause a denial of service (system hang). (CVE-2006-4814, Moderate)
it was discovered that the Linux kernel handled string operations in the
opposite way to the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). This could allow a local
unprivileged user to cause memory corruption. (CVE-2008-1367, Low)
As well, these updated packages fix the following bugs:
a bug, which caused long delays when unmounting mounts containing a large
number of unused dentries, has been resolved.
in the previous kernel packages, the kernel was unable to handle certain
floating point instructions on Itanium® architectures.
on certain Intel CPUs, the Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) was not
flushed correctly, which caused machine check errors.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.
OS | Version | Architecture | Package | Version | Filename |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
RedHat | any | ppc64 | kernel-doc | < 2.4.21-57.EL | kernel-doc-2.4.21-57.EL.ppc64.rpm |
RedHat | any | ppc64pseries | kernel | < 2.4.21-57.EL | kernel-2.4.21-57.EL.ppc64pseries.rpm |
RedHat | any | ppc64iseries | kernel-unsupported | < 2.4.21-57.EL | kernel-unsupported-2.4.21-57.EL.ppc64iseries.rpm |
RedHat | any | ppc64pseries | kernel-unsupported | < 2.4.21-57.EL | kernel-unsupported-2.4.21-57.EL.ppc64pseries.rpm |
RedHat | any | ppc64iseries | kernel | < 2.4.21-57.EL | kernel-2.4.21-57.EL.ppc64iseries.rpm |
RedHat | any | ppc64 | kernel-source | < 2.4.21-57.EL | kernel-source-2.4.21-57.EL.ppc64.rpm |