(RHSA-2004:327) kernel security update

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

This kernel updates several important drivers and fixes a number of bugs
including potential security vulnerabilities.

Paul Starzetz discovered flaws in the Linux kernel when handling file
offset pointers. These consist of invalid conversions of 64 to 32-bit file
offset pointers and possible race conditions. A local unprivileged user
could make use of these flaws to access large portions of kernel memory.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has
assigned the name CAN-2004-0415 to this issue.

A flaw was discovered in an error path supporting the clone() system call
that allowed local users to cause a denial of service (memory leak) by
passing invalid arguments to clone() running in an infinite loop of a
user’s program (CAN-2004-0427).

Enhancements were committed to the 2.6 kernel by Al Viro which enabled the
Sparse source code checking tool to check for a certain class of kernel
bugs. A subset of these fixes also applies to various drivers in the 2.4
kernel. Although the majority of these resides in drivers unsupported in
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, the flaws could lead to privilege escalation or
access to kernel memory (CAN-2004-0495).

During an audit of the Linux kernel, SUSE discovered a flaw that allowed
a user to make unauthorized changes to the group ID of files in certain
circumstances. In the 2.4 kernel, as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise
Linux, the only way this could happen is through the kernel NFS server. A
user on a system that mounted a remote file system from a vulnerable
machine may be able to make unauthorized changes to the group ID of
exported files (CAN-2004-0497).

A bug in the e1000 network driver has been addressed. This bug could be
used by local users to leak small amounts of kernel memory (CAN-2004-0535).

Inappropriate permissions on /proc/scsi/qla2300/HbaApiNode (CAN-2004-0587).

The following drivers have also been updated:

fusion to 2.05.16
ips to 7.00.15
cciss to 2.4.52
e1000 to v. 5.2.52-k1
e100 to v. 2.3.43-k1

All users are advised to upgrade to these errata packages, which contain
backported security patches that correct these issues.