USN-578-1: Linux kernel vulnerabilities

14 February 2008

Linux kernel vulnerabilities

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Details

The minix filesystem did not properly validate certain filesystem
values. If a local attacker could trick the system into attempting
to mount a corrupted minix filesystem, the kernel could be made to
hang for long periods of time, resulting in a denial of service.
(CVE-2006-6058)

Alexander Schulze discovered that the skge driver does not properly
use the spin_lock and spin_unlock functions. Remote attackers could
exploit this by sending a flood of network traffic and cause a denial
of service (crash). (CVE-2006-7229)

Hugh Dickins discovered that hugetlbfs performed certain prio_tree
calculations using HPAGE_SIZE instead of PAGE_SIZE. A local user
could exploit this and cause a denial of service via kernel panic.
(CVE-2007-4133)

Chris Evans discovered an issue with certain drivers that use the
ieee80211_rx function. Remote attackers could send a crafted 802.11
frame and cause a denial of service via crash. (CVE-2007-4997)

Alex Smith discovered an issue with the pwc driver for certain webcam
devices. A local user with physical access to the system could remove
the device while a userspace application had it open and cause the USB
subsystem to block. (CVE-2007-5093)

Scott James Remnant discovered a coding error in ptrace. Local users
could exploit this and cause the kernel to enter an infinite loop.
(CVE-2007-5500)

Venustech AD-LAB discovered a buffer overflow in the isdn net
subsystem. This issue is exploitable by local users via crafted input
to the isdn_ioctl function. (CVE-2007-6063)

It was discovered that the isdn subsystem did not properly check for
NULL termination when performing ioctl handling. A local user could
exploit this to cause a denial of service. (CVE-2007-6151)

Blake Frantz discovered that when a root process overwrote an existing
core file, the resulting core file retained the previous core file's
ownership. Local users could exploit this to gain access to sensitive
information. (CVE-2007-6206)

Hugh Dickins discovered the when using the tmpfs filesystem, under
rare circumstances, a kernel page may be improperly cleared. A local
user may be able to exploit this and read sensitive kernel data or
cause a denial of service via crash. (CVE-2007-6417)

Bill Roman discovered that the VFS subsystem did not properly check
access modes. A local user may be able to gain removal privileges
on directories. (CVE-2008-0001)

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Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 6.06

After a standard system upgrade you need to reboot your computer to
effect the necessary changes.

ATTENTION: Due to an unavoidable ABI change the kernel updates have
been given a new version number, which requires you to recompile and
reinstall all third party kernel modules you might have installed. If
you use linux-restricted-modules, you have to update that package as
well to get modules which work with the new kernel version. Unless you
manually uninstalled the standard kernel metapackages (e.g. linux-386,
linux-powerpc, linux-amd64-generic), a standard system upgrade will
automatically perform this as well.

References

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