(RHSA-2007:0993) Important: kernel security update

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

These new kernel packages contain fixes for the following security issues:

A memory leak was found in the Red Hat Content Accelerator kernel patch. A
local user could use this flaw to cause a denial of service (memory
exhaustion). (CVE-2007-5494, Important)

A flaw was found in the handling of IEEE 802.11 frames affecting several
wireless LAN modules. In certain circumstances, a remote attacker could
trigger this flaw by sending a malicious packet over a wireless network and
cause a denial of service (kernel crash). (CVE-2007-4997, Important).

A flaw was found in the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA). A local
user who had the ability to read the /proc/driver/snd-page-alloc file could
see portions of kernel memory. (CVE-2007-4571, Moderate).

In addition to the security issues described above, several bug fixes
preventing possible memory corruption, system crashes, SCSI I/O fails,
networking drivers performance regression and journaling block device layer
issue were also included.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users are advised to upgrade to these packages,
which contain backported patches to resolve these issues.

Red Hat would like to credit Vasily Averin, Chris Evans, and Neil Kettle
for reporting the security issues corrected by this update.