kernel-2.6.18-238.2.AXS3

The kernel package contains the Linux kernel (vmlinuz), the core of any Linux operating system. The kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system: memory allocation, process allocation, device input and output, etc.
Security issues fixed with this release:
CVE-2011-0726
The do_task_stat function in fs/proc/array.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39-rc1 does not perform an expected uid check, which makes it easier for local users to defeat the ASLR protection mechanism by reading the start_code and end_code fields in the /proc/#####/stat file for a process executing a PIE binary.
CVE-2011-1093
The dccp_rcv_state_process function in net/dccp/input.c in the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38 does not properly handle packets for a CLOSED endpoint, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and OOPS) by sending a DCCP-Close packet followed by a DCCP-Reset packet.
CVE-2011-1170
net/ipv4/netfilter/arp_tables.c in the IPv4 implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not place the expected '' character at the end of string data in the values of certain structure members, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to issue a crafted request, and then reading the argument to the resulting modprobe process.
CVE-2011-1171
net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.c in the IPv4 implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not place the expected '' character at the end of string data in the values of certain structure members, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to issue a crafted request, and then reading the argument to the resulting modprobe process.
CVE-2011-1172
net/ipv6/netfilter/ip6_tables.c in the IPv6 implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39 does not place the expected '' character at the end of string data in the values of certain structure members, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability to issue a crafted request, and then reading the argument to the resulting modprobe process.
CVE-2011-1163
The osf_partition function in fs/partitions/osf.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38 does not properly handle an invalid number of partitions, which might allow local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel heap memory via vectors related to partition-table parsing.
CVE-2011-1494
Integer overflow in the _ctl_do_mpt_command function in drivers/scsi/mpt2sas/mpt2sas_ctl.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.38 and earlier might allow local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via an ioctl call specifying a crafted value that triggers a heap-based buffer overflow.
CVE-2011-1495
drivers/scsi/mpt2sas/mpt2sas_ctl.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.38 and earlier does not validate (1) length and (2) offset values before performing memory copy operations, which might allow local users to gain privileges, cause a denial of service (memory corruption), or obtain sensitive information from kernel memory via a crafted ioctl call, related to the _ctl_do_mpt_command and _ctl_diag_read_buffer functions.
CVE-2011-1577
Heap-based buffer overflow in the is_gpt_valid function in fs/partitions/efi.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.38 and earlier allows physically proximate attackers to cause a denial of service (OOPS) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted size of the EFI GUID partition-table header on removable media.
CVE-2010-4346
The install_special_mapping function in mm/mmap.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37-rc6 does not make an expected security_file_mmap function call, which allows local users to bypass intended mmap_min_addr restrictions and possibly conduct NULL pointer dereference attacks via a crafted assembly-language application.
CVE-2011-0521
The dvb_ca_ioctl function in drivers/media/dvb/ttpci/av7110_ca.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38-rc2 does not check the sign of a certain integer field, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a negative value.
CVE-2011-0710
The task_show_regs function in arch/s390/kernel/traps.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38-rc4-next-20110216 on the s390 platform allows local users to obtain the values of the registers of an arbitrary process by reading a status file under /proc/.
CVE-2011-1010
Buffer overflow in the mac_partition function in fs/partitions/mac.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37.2 allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a malformed Mac OS partition table.
CVE-2011-1090
The __nfs4_proc_set_acl function in fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.38 stores NFSv4 ACL data in memory that is allocated by kmalloc but not properly freed, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) via a crafted attempt to set an ACL.
CVE-2010-4249
The wait_for_unix_gc function in net/unix/garbage.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37-rc3-next-20101125 does not properly select times for garbage collection of inflight sockets, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system hang) via crafted use of the socketpair and sendmsg system calls for SOCK_SEQPACKET sockets.
CVE-2010-4251
The socket implementation in net/core/sock.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34 does not properly manage a backlog of received packets, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by sending a large amount of network traffic, as demonstrated by netperf UDP tests.
CVE-2010-4655
net/core/ethtool.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36 does not initialize certain data structures, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel heap memory by leveraging the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability for an ethtool ioctl call.
CVE-2010-4526
Race condition in the Linux kernel 2.6.11-rc2 through 2.6.33 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (panic) via an ICMP unreachable message to a socket that is already locked by a user, which causes the socket to be freed and triggers list corruption, related to the sctp_wait_for_connect function.
CVE-2010-3296
The cxgb_extension_ioctl function in drivers/net/cxgb3/cxgb3_main.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36-rc5 does not properly initialize a certain structure member, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via a CHELSIO_GET_QSET_NUM ioctl call.
CVE-2010-3877
The get_name function in net/tipc/socket.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37-rc2 does not initialize a certain structure, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory by reading a copy of this structure.
CVE-2010-4072
The copy_shmid_to_user function in ipc/shm.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37-rc1 does not initialize a certain structure, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via vectors related to the shmctl system call and the old shm interface.
CVE-2010-4073
The ipc subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37-rc1 does not initialize certain structures, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via vectors related to the (1) compat_sys_semctl, (2) compat_sys_msgctl, and (3) compat_sys_shmctl functions in ipc/compat.c; and the (4) compat_sys_mq_open and (5) compat_sys_mq_getsetattr functions in ipc/compat_mq.c.
CVE-2010-4075
The uart_get_count function in drivers/serial/serial_core.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37-rc1 does not properly initialize a certain structure member, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via a TIOCGICOUNT ioctl call.
CVE-2010-4080
The snd_hdsp_hwdep_ioctl function in sound/pci/rme9652/hdsp.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36-rc6 does not initialize a certain structure, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via an SNDRV_HDSP_IOCTL_GET_CONFIG_INFO ioctl call.
CVE-2010-4081
The snd_hdspm_hwdep_ioctl function in sound/pci/rme9652/hdspm.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36-rc6 does not initialize a certain structure, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via an SNDRV_HDSPM_IOCTL_GET_CONFIG_INFO ioctl call.
CVE-2010-4158
The sk_run_filter function in net/core/filter.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.36.2 does not check whether a certain memory location has been initialized before executing a (1) BPF_S_LD_MEM or (2) BPF_S_LDX_MEM instruction, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel stack memory via a crafted socket filter.
CVE-2010-4238
The vbd_create function in Xen 3.1.2, when the Linux kernel 2.6.18 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 is used, allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (host OS panic) via an attempted access to a virtual CD-ROM device through the blkback driver. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.
CVE-2010-4243
fs/exec.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.37 does not enable the OOM Killer to assess use of stack memory by arrays representing the (1) arguments and (2) environment, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a crafted exec system call, aka an OOM dodging issue, a related issue to CVE-2010-3858.
CVE-2010-4255
The fixup_page_fault function in arch/x86/traps.c in Xen 4.0.1 and earlier on 64-bit platforms, when paravirtualization is enabled, does not verify that kernel mode is used to call the handle_gdt_ldt_mapping_fault function, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (host OS BUG_ON) via a crafted memory access.
CVE-2010-4263
The igb_receive_skb function in drivers/net/igb/igb_main.c in the Intel Gigabit Ethernet (aka igb) subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.34, when Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) and promiscuous mode are enabled but no VLANs are registered, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and panic) and possibly have unspecified other impact via a VLAN tagged frame.
CVE-2010-4343
drivers/scsi/bfa/bfa_core.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.35 does not initialize a certain port data structure, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) via read operations on an fc_host statistics file.
CVE-2011-1078
CVE-2011-1079
CVE-2011-1080
CVE-2011-1166
CVE-2011-1763
CVE-2011-1478
No description available at the time of writing, please refer to the CVE links below.
Fixed bugs:
Too many to list here but here are some of the main ones:
- Changed the value of debug parameter from 0 to 1 to provide kernel-debug-devel.
- Merged patches from 2.6.18-194.11.AXS3
- Modified all i686, x86_64 and ia64 kernel config files
- Modified config-rhel-generic to enable ocfs2