(RHSA-2011:0542) Important: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 kernel security, bug fix and enhancement update

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

This update fixes the following security issues:

• Multiple buffer overflow flaws were found in the Linux kernel’s
  Management Module Support for Message Passing Technology (MPT) based
  controllers. A local, unprivileged user could use these flaws to cause a
  denial of service, an information leak, or escalate their privileges.
  (CVE-2011-1494, CVE-2011-1495, Important)

• A flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s Ethernet bonding driver
  implementation. Packets coming in from network devices that have more
  than 16 receive queues to a bonding interface could cause a denial of
  service. (CVE-2011-1581, Important)

• A flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s networking subsystem. If the
  number of packets received exceeded the receiver’s buffer limit, they were
  queued in a backlog, consuming memory, instead of being discarded. A remote
  attacker could abuse this flaw to cause a denial of service (out-of-memory
  condition). (CVE-2010-4251, Moderate)

• A flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s Transparent Huge Pages (THP)
  implementation. A local, unprivileged user could abuse this flaw to allow
  the user stack (when it is using huge pages) to grow and cause a denial of
  service. (CVE-2011-0999, Moderate)

• A flaw was found in the transmit methods (xmit) for the loopback and
  InfiniBand transports in the Linux kernel’s Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS)
  implementation. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause a
  denial of service. (CVE-2011-1023, Moderate)

• A flaw in the Linux kernel’s Event Poll (epoll) implementation could
  allow a local, unprivileged user to cause a denial of service.
  (CVE-2011-1082, Moderate)

• An inconsistency was found in the interaction between the Linux kernel’s
  method for allocating NFSv4 (Network File System version 4) ACL data and
  the method by which it was freed. This inconsistency led to a kernel panic
  which could be triggered by a local, unprivileged user with files owned by
  said user on an NFSv4 share. (CVE-2011-1090, Moderate)

• A missing validation check was found in the Linux kernel’s
  mac_partition() implementation, used for supporting file systems created
  on Mac OS operating systems. A local attacker could use this flaw to cause
  a denial of service by mounting a disk that contains specially-crafted
  partitions. (CVE-2011-1010, Low)

• A buffer overflow flaw in the DEC Alpha OSF partition implementation in
  the Linux kernel could allow a local attacker to cause an information leak
  by mounting a disk that contains specially-crafted partition tables.
  (CVE-2011-1163, Low)

• Missing validations of null-terminated string data structure elements in
  the do_replace(), compat_do_replace(), do_ipt_get_ctl(), do_ip6t_get_ctl(),
  and do_arpt_get_ctl() functions could allow a local user who has the
  CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to cause an information leak. (CVE-2011-1170,
  CVE-2011-1171, CVE-2011-1172, Low)

Red Hat would like to thank Dan Rosenberg for reporting CVE-2011-1494 and
CVE-2011-1495; Nelson Elhage for reporting CVE-2011-1082; Timo Warns for
reporting CVE-2011-1010 and CVE-2011-1163; and Vasiliy Kulikov for
reporting CVE-2011-1170, CVE-2011-1171, and CVE-2011-1172.

This update also fixes several hundred bugs and adds enhancements. Refer to
the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 Release Notes for information on the most
significant of these changes, and the Technical Notes for further
information, both linked to in the References.

All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 users are advised to install these updated
packages, which correct these issues, and fix the bugs and add the
enhancements noted in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 Release Notes and
Technical Notes. The system must be rebooted for this update to take
effect.