(RHSA-2004:689) kernel security update

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

This advisory includes fixes for several security issues:

Petr Vandrovec discovered a flaw in the 32bit emulation code affecting the
Linux 2.4 kernel on the AMD64 architecture. A local attacker could use
this flaw to gain privileges. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-1144 to this issue.

ISEC security research discovered multiple vulnerabilities in the IGMP
functionality which was backported in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
kernels. These flaws could allow a local user to cause a denial of
service (crash) or potentially gain privileges. Where multicast
applications are being used on a system, these flaws may also allow remote
users to cause a denial of service. The Common Vulnerabilities and
Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-1137 to
this issue.

ISEC security research and Georgi Guninski independantly discovered a flaw
in the scm_send function in the auxiliary message layer. A local user
could create a carefully crafted auxiliary message which could cause a
denial of service (system hang). The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures
project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-1016 to this issue.

A floating point information leak was discovered in the ia64 architecture
context switch code. A local user could use this flaw to read register
values of other processes by setting the MFH bit. The Common
Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the
name CAN-2004-0565 to this issue.

Kirill Korotaev found a flaw in load_elf_binary affecting kernels prior to
2.4.26. A local user could create a carefully crafted binary in such a
way that it would cause a denial of service (system crash). The Common
Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the
name CAN-2004-1234 to this issue.

These packages also fix issues in the io_edgeport driver, and a memory leak
in ip_options_get.

Note: The kernel-unsupported package contains various drivers and 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.