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)
a possible hypervisor panic was found in the Linux kernel. A privileged
user of a fully virtualized guest could initiate a stress-test File
Transfer Protocol (FTP) transfer between the guest and the hypervisor,
possibly leading to hypervisor panic. (CVE-2008-1619, 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)
the absence of sanity-checks was found in the hypervisor block backend
driver, when running 32-bit paravirtualized guests on a 64-bit host. The
number of blocks to be processed per one request from guest to host, or
vice-versa, was not checked for its maximum value, which could have allowed
a local privileged user of the guest operating system to cause a denial of
service. (CVE-2007-5498, Important)
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:
on IBM System z architectures, when running QIOASSIST enabled QDIO
devices in an IBM z/VM environment, the output queue stalled under heavy
load. This caused network performance to degrade, possibly causing network
hangs and outages.
multiple buffer overflows were discovered in the neofb video driver. It
was not possible for an unprivileged user to exploit these issues, and as
such, they have not been handled as security issues.
when running Microsoft Windows in a HVM, a bug in vmalloc/vfree caused
network performance to degrade.
on certain architectures, a bug in the libATA sata_nv driver may have
caused infinite reboots, and an βata1: CPB flags CMD err flags 0x11β error.
repeatedly hot-plugging a PCI Express card may have caused βBad DLLPβ
errors.
a NULL pointer dereference in NFS, which may have caused applications to
crash, has been resolved.
when attempting to kexec reboot, either manually or via a panic-triggered
kdump, the Unisys ES7000/one hanged after rebooting in the new kernel,
after printing the βMemory: 32839688k/33685504k availableβ line.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.
OS | Version | Architecture | Package | Version | Filename |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
RedHat | 5 | s390x | kernel-devel | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.s390x.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | x86_64 | kernel-xen | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.x86_64.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | noarch | kernel-doc | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-doc-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.noarch.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | ia64 | kernel | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.ia64.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | x86_64 | kernel-headers | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-headers-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.x86_64.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | s390x | kernel | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.s390x.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | ppc64 | kernel | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.ppc64.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | ppc64 | kernel-devel | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.ppc64.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | x86_64 | kernel-devel | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.x86_64.rpm |
RedHat | 5 | ia64 | kernel-devel | <Β 2.6.18-53.1.19.el5 | kernel-devel-2.6.18-53.1.19.el5.ia64.rpm |