RHSA-2009:1548: Important: kernel security and bug fix update

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linuxoperating system.Security fixes: a system with SELinux enforced was more permissive in allowing local users in the unconfinedt domain to map low memory areas even if themmapminaddr restriction was enabled. This could aid in the localexploitation of NULL pointer dereference bugs. (CVE-2009-2695, Important) a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the eCryptfs implementation in the Linux kernel. A local attacker could use this flaw to cause a localdenial of service or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2009-2908, Important) a flaw was found in the NFSv4 implementation. The kernel would do an unnecessary permission check after creating a file. This check wouldusually fail and leave the file with the permission bits set to randomvalues. Note: This is a server-side only issue. (CVE-2009-3286, Important) a NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in each of the following functions in the Linux kernel: pipereadopen(), pipewriteopen(), andpiperdwropen(). When the mutex lock is not held, the ipipe pointer couldbe released by other processes before it is used to update the pipe'sreader and writer counters. This could lead to a local denial of service orprivilege escalation. (CVE-2009-3547, Important) a flaw was found in the Realtek r8169 Ethernet driver in the Linux kernel. pciunmapsingle() presented a memory leak that could lead to IOMMUspace exhaustion and a system crash. An attacker on the local network couldabuse this flaw by using jumbo frames for large amounts of network traffic.(CVE-2009-3613, Important) missing initialization flaws were found in the Linux kernel. Padding data in several core network structures was not initialized properly beforebeing sent to user-space. These flaws could lead to information leaks.(CVE-2009-3228, Moderate)Bug fixes: with network bonding in the "balance-tlb" or "balance-alb" mode, the primary setting for the primary slave device was lost when said device wasbrought down. Bringing the slave back up did not restore the primarysetting. (BZ#517971) some faulty serial device hardware caused systems running the kernel-xen kernel to take a very long time to boot. (BZ#524153) a caching bug in nfsreaddir() may have caused NFS clients to see duplicate files or not see all files in a directory. (BZ#526960) the RHSA-2009:1243 update removed the mptmsienable option, preventing certain scripts from running. This update adds the option back. (BZ#526963) an iptables rule with the recent module and a hit count value greater than the ippktlisttot parameter (the default is 20), did not have anyeffect over packets, as the hit count could not be reached. (BZ#527434) a check has been added to the IPv4 code to make sure that rt is not NULL, to help prevent future bugs in functions that call ipappenddata() frombeing exploitable. (BZ#527436) a kernel panic occurred in certain conditions after reconfiguring a tape drive's block size. (BZ#528133) when using the Linux Virtual Server (LVS) in a master and backup configuration, and propagating active connections on the master to thebackup, the connection timeout value on the backup was hard-coded to 180seconds, meaning connection information on the backup was soon lost. Thiscould prevent the successful failover of connections. The timeout valuecan now be set via "ipvsadm --set". (BZ#528645) a bug in nfs4doopenexpired() could have caused the reclaimer thread on an NFSv4 client to enter an infinite loop. (BZ#529162) MSI interrupts may not have been delivered for r8169 based network cards that have MSI interrupts enabled. This bug only affected certain systems.(BZ#529366)Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backportedpatches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for thisupdate to take effect.