(RHSA-2004:188) Updated kernel packages available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 2

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the
operating system.

This is the second regular kernel update to Red Hat
Enterprise Linux version 3. It contains several minor
security fixes, many bug fixes, device driver updates,
new hardware support, and the introduction of Linux
Syscall Auditing support.

There were bug fixes in many different parts of the kernel,
the bulk of which addressed unusual situations such as error
handling, race conditions, and resource starvation. The
combined effect of the approximately 140 fixes is a strong
improvement in the reliability and durability of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. Some of the key areas affected are disk
drivers, network drivers, USB support, x86_64 and ppc64
platform support, ia64 32-bit emulation layer enablers,
and the VM, NFS, IPv6, and SCSI subsystems.

A significant change in the SCSI subsystem (the disabling
of the scsi-affine-queue patch) should significantly improve
SCSI disk driver performance in many scenarios. There were
10 Bugzillas against SCSI performance problems addressed
by this change.

The following drivers have been upgraded to new versions:

bonding ---- 2.4.1
cciss ------ 2.4.50.RH1
e1000 ------ 5.2.30.1-k1
fusion ----- 2.05.11.03
ipr -------- 1.0.3
ips -------- 6.11.07
megaraid2 – 2.10.1.1
qla2x00 ---- 6.07.02-RH1
tg3 -------- 3.1
z90crypt — 1.1.4

This update introduces support for the new Intel EM64T
processor. A new “ia32e” architecture has been created to
support booting on platforms based on either the original
AMD Opteron CPU or the new Intel EM64T CPU. The existing
“x86_64” architecture has remained optimized for Opteron
systems. Kernels for both types of systems are built from
the same x86_64-architecture sources and share a common
kernel source RPM (kernel-source-2.4.21-15.EL.x86_64.rpm).

Other highlights in this update include a major upgrade to
the SATA infrastructure, addition of IBM JS20 Power Blade
support, and creation of an optional IBM eServer zSeries
On-Demand Timer facility for reducing idle CPU overhead.

The following security issues were addressed in this update:

A minor flaw was found where /proc/tty/driver/serial reveals
the exact character counts for serial links. The Common
Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has
assigned the name CAN-2003-0461 to this issue.

The kernel strncpy() function in Linux 2.4 and 2.5 does not
pad the target buffer with null bytes on architectures other
than x86, as opposed to the expected libc behavior, which
could lead to information leaks. The Common Vulnerabilities
and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name
CAN-2003-0465 to this issue.

A minor data leak was found in two real time clock drivers
(for /dev/rtc). The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name
CAN-2003-0984 to this issue.

A flaw in the R128 Direct Render Infrastructure (dri) driver
could allow local privilege escalation. This driver is part
of the kernel-unsupported package. The Common Vulnera-
bilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned
the name CAN-2004-0003 to this issue.

A flaw in ncp_lookup() in ncpfs could allow local privilege
escalation. The ncpfs module allows a system to mount
volumes of NetWare servers or print to NetWare printers and
is in the kernel-unsupported package. The Common Vulnera-
bilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned
the name CAN-2004-0010 to this issue.

(Note that the kernel-unsupported package contains drivers
and other modules that are unsupported and therefore might
contain security problems that have not been addressed.)

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users are advised to upgrade
their kernels to the packages associated with their machine
architectures and configurations as listed in this erratum.