CESA-2003:239: kernel security update

Description

Updated kernel packages that address various security vulnerabilities are now available for CentOS Linux.

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system. Security issues have been found that affect the versions of the Linux kernel shipped with CentOS Linux: CAN-2003-0462: Paul Starzetz discovered a file read race condition existing in the execve() system call, which could cause a local crash. CAN-2003-0501: The /proc filesystem in Linux allows local users to obtain sensitive information by opening various entries in /proc/self before executing a setuid program. This causes the program to fail to change the ownership and permissions of already opened entries. CAN-2003-0550: The STP protocol is known to have no security, which could allow attackers to alter the bridge topology. STP is now turned off by default. CAN-2003-0551: STP input processing was lax in its length checking, which could lead to a denial of service (DoS). CAN-2003-0552: Jerry Kreuscher discovered that the Forwarding table could be spoofed by sending forged packets with bogus source addresses the same as the local host. CAN-2003-0619: An integer signedness error in the decode_fh function of nfs3xdr.c allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (kernel panic) via a negative size value within XDR data of an NFSv3 procedure call. CAN-2003-0699: The C-Media PCI sound driver in Linux kernel versions prior to 2.4.21 accesses userspace without using the get_user function, which is a potential security hole. All users are advised to upgrade to these erratum packages, which contain backported security patches correcting these vulnerabilities.