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Security update for Linux kernel

Knowledgebase

(Last modified: 19NOV2004)


solutions Security update for Linux kernel SuSE Linux Maintenance Web (bc6570ee193949696872f698991ed49d)

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-9489
Release: 20041119
Obsoletes: c6452bdf65e6356dcb37c9d14e4844cf

Indications

Everyone using the Linux Kernel on PPC architecture should update.

Contraindications

None.

Problem description

This update fixes following security issues in the kernel:
  • Fixed / Added ELF loader error handling where it was missing, which could lead to a local privilege escalation. This was found by Paul Starzetz of isec.pl.
  • Fixed several smbfs boundary checking problems which could lead to buffer overflows. This issue was found by Stefan Essern and was assigned the CVE ID CAN-2004-0883.
  • Fixed a possible userspace corruptions / data disclosure problem on SMP machines with more than 4 GB of RAM.
  • Fixed a denial of service condition in a.out support.
Following additional bugs were fixed:
  • Fixed a aic79xx modprobe/rmmod oops.
  • Fixed a broken decnet fix.
  • Fixed an NFS data corruption problem in readdirplus handling.

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

Download Source Packages

Download the source code of the patches for maintained products.


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