Security update for Linux kernel

Knowledgebase

(Last modified: 20JAN2005)

solutions Security update for Linux kernel SuSE Linux Maintenance Web (7cb4af3aea86af46dfe6dec778cc8168)

Applies to

Package: kernel-default
kernel-iseries64
kernel-pmac64
kernel-pseries64
kernel-smp
kernel-source
kernel-syms
Product(s): SUSE CORE 9 for IBM POWER
Patch: patch-9759
Release: 20050120
Obsoletes: 5cd50fd6b9d671d9f7353e6b811dbf2d

Indications

Everyone using the Linux Kernel on PPC architecture should update.

Contraindications

None.

Problem description

This update fixes following security problems:

An unlocked VM operation could lead to a local user gaining root access using a handcrafted ELF binary and the uselib system call. This problem was found by Paul Starzetz and has been assigned the Mitre CVE ID CAN-2004-1235.
A race condition in the SMP page fault handler could lead to a local attacker gaining root access on SMP machines. This problem was also found by Paul Starzetz and has been assigned the Mitre CVE ID CAN-2005-001.
A problem in the earlier cmsg / sendmsg security fix was identified and fixed which could lead 32bit applications on a 64bit system (like i386 binaries on x86_64, or PowerPC binaries on a PowerPC64 system) to handle the sendmsg call incorrectly.
An incomplete fix of the IGMP problem in the last update was replaced by the final approved fix.
The smbfs fixes done 2 security updates ago were broken for writing files. This has been fixed.
grsecurity reported a possible signedness problem in the generic scsi ioctl handler.
Bad handling of oversized NFS Direct I/O request could lead to a local denial of service attack.

Solution

Please install the updates provided at the location noted below.

Installation notes

This update is provided as an RPM package that can easily be installed onto a running system.
First, find out which kernel package to use, for example with
rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz
Download the kernel image fitting your setup and install it with either:

rpm -Fvh kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-default*.rpm for the default kernel image, or
rpm -Fvh kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-iseries64*.rpm for the 64 bit iSeries kernel image, or
rpm -Fvh kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-pseries64*.rpm for the 64 bit pSeries kernel image, or
rpm -Fvh kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-smp*.rpm for the SMP kernel image, or
rpm -Fvh kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-pmac64*.rpm for the 64 bit PPC kernel image

Please do only install one of these kernels, not all of them.
After performing the RPM package update of your kernel package, you must execute the following commands as root to make sure that your system will start up again:
mk_initrd lilo
Finally, reboot the system with
shutdown -r now
to load the new kernel (replace "now" with the appropriate amount of time to allow local users to cleanly log out, for example "+5" for five minutes.)

links to download packages

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 for IBM POWER (ppc)

Download Source Packages

Download the source code of the patches for maintained products.

Disclaimer

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