RHSA-2009:1193: Important: kernel security and bug fix update

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linuxoperating system.Security fixes: the possibility of a timeout value overflow was found in the Linux kernel high-resolution timers functionality, hrtimers. This could allow a local,unprivileged user to execute arbitrary code, or cause a denial of service(kernel panic). (CVE-2007-5966, Important) a flaw was found in the Intel PRO/1000 network driver in the Linux kernel. Frames with sizes near the MTU of an interface may be split acrossmultiple hardware receive descriptors. Receipt of such a frame could leakthrough a validation check, leading to a corruption of the length check. Aremote attacker could use this flaw to send a specially-crafted packet thatwould cause a denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1385,Important) Michael Tokarev reported a flaw in the Realtek r8169 Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel. This driver allowed interfaces using this driver toreceive frames larger than could be handled, which could lead to a remotedenial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1389, Important) the ADDRCOMPATLAYOUT and MMAPPAGEZERO flags were not cleared when a setuid or setgid program was executed. A local, unprivileged user could usethis flaw to bypass the mmapminaddr protection mechanism and perform aNULL pointer dereference attack, or bypass the Address Space LayoutRandomization (ASLR) security feature. (CVE-2009-1895, Important) Ramon de Carvalho Valle reported two flaws in the Linux kernel eCryptfs implementation. A local attacker with permissions to perform an eCryptfsmount could modify the metadata of the files in that eCrypfts mount tocause a buffer overflow, leading to a denial of service or privilegeescalation. (CVE-2009-2406, CVE-2009-2407, Important) Konstantin Khlebnikov discovered a race condition in the ptrace implementation in the Linux kernel. This race condition can occur when theprocess tracing and the process being traced participate in a core dump. Alocal, unprivileged user could use this flaw to trigger a deadlock,resulting in a partial denial of service. (CVE-2009-1388, Moderate)Bug fixes (see References below for a link to more detailed notes): possible dom0 crash when a Xen para-virtualized guest was installed while another para-virtualized guest was rebooting. (BZ#497812) no directory removal audit record if the directory and its subtree were recursively watched by an audit rule. (BZ#507561) running "echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/dropcaches" under high memory load could cause a kernel panic. (BZ#503692) on 32-bit systems, core dumps for some multithreaded applications did not include all thread information. (BZ#505322) a stack buffer used by geteventname() was too small for nul terminator sprintf() writes. This could lead to an invalid pointer or kernel panic.(BZ#506906) when using the aic94xx driver, systems with SATA drives may not boot due to a libsas bug. (BZ#506029) Wacom Cintiq 21UX and Intuos stylus buttons were handled incorrectly when moved away from and back to these tablets. (BZ#508275) CPU "soft lockup" messages and possibe system hangs on systems with certain Broadcom network devices and running the Linux kernel from thekernel-xen package. (BZ#503689) on 64-bit PowerPC, getitimer() failed for programs using the ITIMERREAL timer that were also compiled for 64-bit systems. This caused such programsto abort. (BZ#510018) write operations could be blocked even when using ONONBLOCK. (BZ#510239) the "pci=nomsi" option was required for installing and booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 on systems with VIA VT3364 chipsets. (BZ#507529) shutting down, destroying, or migrating Xen guests with large amounts of memory could cause other guests to be temporarily unresponsive. (BZ#512311)Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backportedpatches to correct these issues. Systems must be rebooted for this updateto take effect.