kernel security update

CentOS Errata and Security Advisory CESA-2008:0275

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

These updated packages fix the following security issues:

• on AMD64 architectures, the possibility of a kernel crash was discovered
  by testing the Linux kernel process-trace ability. This could allow a local
  unprivileged user to cause a denial of service (kernel crash).
  (CVE-2008-1615, Important)

• on 64-bit architectures, the possibility of a timer-expiration value
  overflow was found in the Linux kernel high-resolution timers
  functionality, hrtimer. This could allow a local unprivileged user to setup
  a large interval value, forcing the timer expiry value to become negative,
  causing a denial of service (kernel hang). (CVE-2007-6712, Important)

• the possibility of a kernel crash was found in the Linux kernel IPsec
  protocol implementation, due to improper handling of fragmented ESP
  packets. When an attacker controlling an intermediate router fragmented
  these packets into very small pieces, it would cause a kernel crash on the
  receiving node during packet reassembly. (CVE-2007-6282, Important)

• a potential denial of service attack was discovered in the Linux kernel
  PWC USB video driver. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to
  bring the kernel USB subsystem into the busy-waiting state, causing a
  denial of service. (CVE-2007-5093, Low)

As well, these updated packages fix the following bugs:

• in certain situations, a kernel hang and a possible panic occurred when
  disabling the cpufreq daemon. This may have prevented system reboots from
  completing successfully.

• continual “softlockup” messages, which occurred on the guest’s console
  after a successful save and restore of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  para-virtualized guest, have been resolved.

• in the previous kernel packages, the kernel may not have reclaimed NFS
  locks after a system reboot.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

Merged security bulletin from advisories:
https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2008-May/077078.html
https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2008-May/077079.html

Affected packages:
kernel
kernel-PAE
kernel-PAE-devel
kernel-debug
kernel-debug-devel
kernel-devel
kernel-doc
kernel-headers
kernel-xen
kernel-xen-devel

Upstream details at:
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2008:0275