kernel security update

CentOS Errata and Security Advisory CESA-2009:1193

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating 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 across
  multiple hardware receive descriptors. Receipt of such a frame could leak
  through a validation check, leading to a corruption of the length check. A
  remote attacker could use this flaw to send a specially-crafted packet that
  would 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 to
  receive frames larger than could be handled, which could lead to a remote
  denial of service or code execution. (CVE-2009-1389, Important)

• the ADDR_COMPAT_LAYOUT and MMAP_PAGE_ZERO flags were not cleared when a
  setuid or setgid program was executed. A local, unprivileged user could use
  this flaw to bypass the mmap_min_addr protection mechanism and perform a
  NULL pointer dereference attack, or bypass the Address Space Layout
  Randomization (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 eCryptfs
  mount could modify the metadata of the files in that eCrypfts mount to
  cause a buffer overflow, leading to a denial of service or privilege
  escalation. (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 the
  process tracing and the process being traced participate in a core dump. A
  local, 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/drop_caches” 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 get_event_name() 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 the
  kernel-xen package. (BZ#503689)

• on 64-bit PowerPC, getitimer() failed for programs using the ITIMER_REAL
  timer that were also compiled for 64-bit systems. This caused such programs
  to abort. (BZ#510018)

• write operations could be blocked even when using O_NONBLOCK. (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 backported
patches to correct these issues. Systems must be rebooted for this update
to take effect.

Merged security bulletin from advisories:
https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2009-August/078224.html
https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2009-August/078225.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-2009:1193