Synopsis: Important: kernel security and bug fix update
Issue Date: 2011-12-22
CVE Numbers: CVE-2011-4127
The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.
Security fix:
* Using the SG_IO IOCTL to issue SCSI requests to partitions or LVM volumes
resulted in the requests being passed to the underlying block device. If a
privileged user only had access to a single partition or LVM volume, they
could use this flaw to bypass those restrictions and gain read and write
access (and be able to issue other SCSI commands) to the entire block
device.
In KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) environments using raw format virtio
disks backed by a partition or LVM volume, a privileged guest user could
bypass intended restrictions and issue read and write requests (and other
SCSI commands) on the host, and possibly access the data of other guests
that reside on the same underlying block device. Partition-based and
LVM-based storage pools are not used by default. (CVE-2011-4127, Important)
Bug fixes:
* Previously, idle load balancer kick requests from other CPUs could be
serviced without first receiving an inter-processor interrupt (IPI). This
could have led to a deadlock.
* This update fixes a performance regression that may have caused processes
(including KVM guests) to hang for a number of seconds.
* When md_raid1_unplug_device() was called while holding a spinlock, under
certain device failure conditions, it was possible for the lock to be
requested again, deeper in the call chain, causing a deadlock. Now,
md_raid1_unplug_device() is no longer called while holding a spinlock.
* In hpet_next_event(), an interrupt could have occurred between the read
and write of the HPET (High Performance Event Timer) and the value of
HPET_COUNTER was then beyond that being written to the comparator
(HPET_Tn_CMP). Consequently, the timers were overdue for up to several
minutes. Now, a comparison is performed between the value of the counter
and the comparator in the HPET code. If the counter is beyond the
comparator, the "-ETIME" error code is returned.
* Index allocation in the virtio-blk module was based on a monotonically
increasing variable "index". Consequently, released indexes were not reused
and after a period of time, no new were available. Now, virtio-blk uses the
ida API to allocate indexes.
* A bug related to Context Caching existed in the Intel IOMMU support
module. On some newer Intel systems, the Context Cache mode has changed
from previous hardware versions, potentially exposing a Context coherency
race. The bug was exposed when performing a series of hot plug and unplug
operations of a Virtual Function network device which was immediately
configured into the network stack, i.e., successfully performed dynamic
host configuration protocol (DHCP). When the coherency race occurred, the
assigned device would not work properly in the guest virtual machine. With
this update, the Context coherency is corrected and the race and
potentially resulting device assignment failure no longer occurs.
* The align_va_addr kernel parameter was ignored if secondary CPUs were
initialized. This happened because the parameter settings were overridden
during the initialization of secondary CPUs. Also, the align_va_addr
parameter documentation contained incorrect parameter arguments. With this
update, the underlying code has been modified to prevent the overriding and
the documentation has been updated.
* Dell systems based on a future Intel processor with graphics acceleration
required the selection of the install system with basic video driver
installation option. This update removes this requirement.
SL6:
i386
kernel-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debug-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-common-i686-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
perf-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
python-perf-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.i686.rpm
noarch
kernel-doc-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.noarch.rpm
kernel-firmware-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.noarch.rpm
x86_64
kernel-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debug-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debug-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
perf-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
perf-debuginfo-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
python-perf-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.rpm
- Scientific Linux Development Team
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