Red Hat Security Advisory: kernel security and bug fix update

Important

The error-reporting functionality in (1) fs/ext2/dir.c, (2) fs/ext3/dir.c, and possibly (3) fs/ext4/dir.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.26.5 does not limit the number of printk console messages that report directory corruption, which allows physically proximate attackers to cause a denial of service (temporary system hang) by mounting a filesystem that has corrupted dir->i_size and dir->i_blocks values and performing (a) read or (b) write operations. NOTE: there are limited scenarios in which this crosses privilege boundaries.

libata in the Linux kernel before 2.6.27.9 does not set minimum timeouts for SG_IO requests, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (Programmed I/O mode on drives) via multiple simultaneous invocations of an unspecified test program.

The clone system call in the Linux kernel 2.6.28 and earlier allows local users to send arbitrary signals to a parent process from an unprivileged child process by launching an additional child process with the CLONE_PARENT flag, and then letting this new process exit.

fs/ecryptfs/inode.c in the eCryptfs subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.28.1 allows local users to cause a denial of service (fault or memory corruption), or possibly have unspecified other impact, via a readlink call that results in an error, leading to use of a -1 return value as an array index.

drivers/firmware/dell_rbu.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.27.13, and 2.6.28.x before 2.6.28.2, allows local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) via a read system call that specifies zero bytes from the (1) image_type or (2) packet_size file in /sys/devices/platform/dell_rbu/.

The skfp_ioctl function in drivers/net/skfp/skfddi.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.28.6 permits SKFP_CLR_STATS requests only when the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability is absent, instead of when this capability is present, which allows local users to reset the driver statistics, related to an "inverted logic" issue.

The sock_getsockopt function in net/core/sock.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.28.6 does not initialize a certain structure member, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from kernel memory via an SO_BSDCOMPAT getsockopt request.