Security update for kernel

Knowledgebase

(Last modified: 25MAY2005)

solutions Security update for kernel SuSE Linux Maintenance Web (d616efaaa3764b063cc5bd3d6d09c89e)

Applies to

Package: kernel-bigsmp
kernel-default
kernel-smp
kernel-source
kernel-um
kernel-debug
kernel-syms
um-host-kernel
um-host-install-initrd
Product(s): SUSE CORE 9 for x86
Novell Linux Desktop 9 for x86
Patch: patch-10067
Release: 20050525
Obsoletes: 54a1f3c286aab229c33a01a912db9ffa

Indications

Everyone using the Linux Kernel on x86 architecture should update.

Problem description

This update fixes the following security problems:

when creating directories on ext2 filesystems the kernel did not zero initialize the memory allocated. Therefore potentially sensitive information could be exposed to users (CAN-2005-0400).
local users can crash the kernel via a crafted ELF library or executable, which causes a free of an invalid pointer (CAN-2005-0749).
local users could gain root access by causing a core dump of specially crafted ELF executables (CAN-2005-1263). The problem is believed to be not exploitable on kernel 2.6, we included the patch nevertheless.

This update also addresses the following non-security problems:

fix NFS corrupting renamed files
fix Oops in acl code
fix building the kernel package with the 'build' program
fix performance problems due to inode cache size
fix potential deadlock when renaming files

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 download and use, for example with
rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz
Download the kernel image fitting your setup and the kernel symbols (kernel-syms*.rpm) and install it with either:

rpm -Fvh kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-default*.rpm for the default kernel image, or
rpm -Fhv kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-smp*.rpm for the SMP kernel image with support for up to 64 GB, or
rpm -Fhv kernel-syms*.rpm kernel-bigsmp*.rpm for the SMP kernel image with support for up to 64 GB

Please do only install one of these kernels, not all of them.
In case you are using LILO as bootmanager, please make sure that you also execute the command
lilo
after installing the update for the system to remain bootable.
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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