RHSA-2014:0801: Important: kernel security update

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linuxoperating system. A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's floppy driver handled user space provided data in certain error code paths while processing FDRAWCMDIOCTL commands. A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use thisflaw to free (using the kfree() function) arbitrary kernel memory.(CVE-2014-1737, Important) It was found that the Linux kernel's floppy driver leaked internal kernel memory addresses to user space during the processing of the FDRAWCMD IOCTLcommand. A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use this flaw toobtain information about the kernel heap arrangement. (CVE-2014-1738, Low)Note: A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use these two flaws(CVE-2014-1737 in combination with CVE-2014-1738) to escalate theirprivileges on the system.Red Hat would like to thank Matthew Daley for reporting these issues.All kernel users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, whichcontain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must berebooted for this update to take effect.