linux-kernel-2.4.17-ia64 - several vulnerabilities

The IA-64 maintainers fixed several security related bugs in the Linux
kernel 2.4.17 used for the IA-64 architecture, mostly by backporting
fixes from 2.4.18. The corrections are listed below with the
identification from the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)
project:

• CAN-2003-0001:

Multiple ethernet network interface card (NIC) device drivers do
not pad frames with null bytes, which allows remote attackers to
obtain information from previous packets or kernel memory by using
malformed packets, as demonstrated by Etherleak.

• CAN-2003-0018:

Linux kernel 2.4.10 through 2.4.21-pre4 does not properly handle
the O_DIRECT feature, which allows local attackers with write
privileges to read portions of previously deleted files, or cause
file system corruption.

• CAN-2003-0127:

The kernel module loader in Linux kernel 2.2.x before 2.2.25, and
2.4.x before 2.4.21, allows local users to gain root privileges
by using ptrace to attach to a child process which is spawned by
the kernel.

• CAN-2003-0461:

The virtual file /proc/tty/driver/serial in Linux 2.4.x reveals
the exact number of characters used in serial links, which could
allow local users to obtain potentially sensitive information such
as the length of passwords.

• CAN-2003-0462:

A race condition in the way env_start and env_end pointers are
initialized in the execve system call and used in fs/proc/base.c
on Linux 2.4 allows local users to cause a denial of service
(crash).

• CAN-2003-0476:

The execve system call in Linux 2.4.x records the file descriptor
of the executable process in the file table of the calling
process, which allows local users to gain read access to
restricted file descriptors.

• CAN-2003-0501:

The /proc filesystem in Linux allows local users to obtain
sensitive information by opening various entries in /proc/self
before executing a setuid program, which causes the program to
fail to change the ownership and permissions of those entries.

• CAN-2003-0550:

The STP protocol, as enabled in Linux 2.4.x, does not provide
sufficient security by design, which allows attackers to modify
the bridge topology.

• CAN-2003-0551:

The STP protocol implementation in Linux 2.4.x does not properly
verify certain lengths, which could allow attackers to cause a
denial of service.

• CAN-2003-0552:

Linux 2.4.x allows remote attackers to spoof the bridge Forwarding
table via forged packets whose source addresses are the same as
the target.

• CAN-2003-0961:

An integer overflow in brk system call (do_brk function) for Linux
kernel 2.4.22 and earlier allows local users to gain root
privileges.

• CAN-2003-0985:

The mremap system call (do_mremap) in Linux kernel 2.4 and 2.6
does not properly perform boundary checks, which allows local
users to cause a denial of service and possibly gain privileges by
causing a remapping of a virtual memory area (VMA) to create a
zero length VMA.

For the stable distribution (woody) this problem has been fixed in
version kernel-image-2.4.17-ia64 for the ia64 architecture. Other
architectures are already or will be fixed separately.

For the unstable distribution (sid) this problem will be fixed soon
with newly uploaded packages.