(RHSA-2014:0801) Important: kernel security update

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

• A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel’s floppy driver handled user
  space provided data in certain error code paths while processing FDRAWCMD
  IOCTL commands. A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use this
  flaw to free (using the kfree() function) arbitrary kernel memory.
  (CVE-2014-1737, Important)

• It was found that the Linux kernel’s floppy driver leaked internal kernel
  memory addresses to user space during the processing of the FDRAWCMD IOCTL
  command. A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use this flaw to
  obtain information about the kernel heap arrangement. (CVE-2014-1738, Low)

Note: A local user with write access to /dev/fdX could use these two flaws
(CVE-2014-1737 in combination with CVE-2014-1738) to escalate their
privileges on the system.

Red Hat would like to thank Matthew Daley for reporting these issues.

All kernel users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must be
rebooted for this update to take effect.