(RHSA-2016:2574) Important: kernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update

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

Security Fix(es):

• It was found that the Linux kernel’s IPv6 implementation mishandled socket options. A local attacker could abuse concurrent access to the socket options to escalate their privileges, or cause a denial of service (use-after-free and system crash) via a crafted sendmsg system call. (CVE-2016-3841, Important)

• Several Moderate and Low impact security issues were found in the Linux kernel. Space precludes documenting each of these issues in this advisory. Refer to the CVE links in the References section for a description of each of these vulnerabilities. (CVE-2013-4312, CVE-2015-8374, CVE-2015-8543, CVE-2015-8812, CVE-2015-8844, CVE-2015-8845, CVE-2016-2053, CVE-2016-2069, CVE-2016-2847, CVE-2016-3156, CVE-2016-4581, CVE-2016-4794, CVE-2016-5412, CVE-2016-5828, CVE-2016-5829, CVE-2016-6136, CVE-2016-6198, CVE-2016-6327, CVE-2016-6480, CVE-2015-8746, CVE-2015-8956, CVE-2016-2117, CVE-2016-2384, CVE-2016-3070, CVE-2016-3699, CVE-2016-4569, CVE-2016-4578)

Red Hat would like to thank Philip Pettersson (Samsung) for reporting CVE-2016-2053; Tetsuo Handa for reporting CVE-2016-2847; the Virtuozzo kernel team and Solar Designer (Openwall) for reporting CVE-2016-3156; Justin Yackoski (Cryptonite) for reporting CVE-2016-2117; and Linn Crosetto (HP) for reporting CVE-2016-3699. The CVE-2015-8812 issue was discovered by Venkatesh Pottem (Red Hat Engineering); the CVE-2015-8844 and CVE-2015-8845 issues were discovered by Miroslav Vadkerti (Red Hat Engineering); the CVE-2016-4581 issue was discovered by Eric W. Biederman (Red Hat); the CVE-2016-6198 issue was discovered by CAI Qian (Red Hat); and the CVE-2016-3070 issue was discovered by Jan Stancek (Red Hat).

Additional Changes:

For detailed information on changes in this release, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 Release Notes linked from the References section.