RHSA-2004:066: kernel security update

Description

Updated kernel packages that fix a security vulnerability that may allow local users to gain root privileges are now available. These packages also resolve other minor issues.

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system. Paul Starzetz discovered a flaw in return value checking in mremap() in the Linux kernel versions 2.4.24 and previous that may allow a local attacker to gain root privileges. No exploit is currently available; however this issue is exploitable. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-0077 to this issue. All users are advised to upgrade to these errata packages, which contain backported security patches that correct these issues. Red Hat would like to thank Paul Starzetz from ISEC for reporting this issue. For the IBM S/390 and IBM eServer zSeries architectures, the upstream version of the s390utils package (which fixes a bug in the zipl bootloader) is also included.