Security Update: Debian Linux Kernel Local / Remote Vulnerabilities

Debian project today released a pair of security updates to plug at least ten security holes in its core called Linux kernel. Several vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Linux kernel that may lead to a denial of service or privilege escalation. This update has been rated as having important security impact.

For the stable distribution (etch), these problems have been fixed in version 2.6.24-6~etchnhalf.7. This is not just Debian specific bug. Other distros will also provide updates.

Problem Description

CVE-2008-3528

    Eugene Teo reported a local DoS issue in the ext2 and ext3
    filesystems.  Local users who have been granted the privileges
    necessary to mount a filesystem would be able to craft a corrupted
    filesystem that causes the kernel to output error messages in an
    infinite loop.

CVE-2008-4554

    Milos Szeredi reported that the usage of splice() on files opened
    with O_APPEND allows users to write to the file at arbitrary
    offsets, enabling a bypass of possible assumed semantics of the
    O_APPEND flag.

CVE-2008-4576

    Vlad Yasevich reported an issue in the SCTP subsystem that may
    allow remote users to cause a local DoS by triggering a kernel
    oops.

CVE-2008-4618

    Wei Yongjun reported an issue in the SCTP subsystem that may allow
    remote users to cause a local DoS by triggering a kernel panic.

CVE-2008-4933

    Eric Sesterhenn reported a local DoS issue in the hfsplus
    filesystem.  Local users who have been granted the privileges
    necessary to mount a filesystem would be able to craft a corrupted
    filesystem that causes the kernel to overrun a buffer, resulting
    in a system oops or memory corruption.

CVE-2008-4934

    Eric Sesterhenn reported a local DoS issue in the hfsplus
    filesystem.  Local users who have been granted the privileges
    necessary to mount a filesystem would be able to craft a corrupted
    filesystem that results in a kernel oops due to an unchecked
    return value.

CVE-2008-5025

    Eric Sesterhenn reported a local DoS issue in the hfs filesystem.
    Local users who have been granted the privileges necessary to
    mount a filesystem would be able to craft a filesystem with a
    corrupted catalog name length, resulting in a system oops or
    memory corruption.

CVE-2008-5029

    Andrea Bittau reported a DoS issue in the unix socket subsystem
    that allows a local user to cause memory corruption, resulting in
    a kernel panic.

CVE-2008-5134

    Johannes Berg reported a remote DoS issue in the libertas wireless
    driver, which can be triggered by a specially crafted beacon/probe
    response.

CVE-2008-5182

    Al Viro reported race conditions in the inotify subsystem that may
    allow local users to acquire elevated privileges.

CVE-2008-5300

    Dann Frazier reported a DoS condition that allows local users to
    cause the out of memory handler to kill off privileged processes
    or trigger soft lockups due to a starvation issue in the unix
    socket subsystem.

How do I fix this problem?

Simply upgrade your kernel by typing the following commands:
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade

Reboot the system:
# reboot

Featured Articles:

• 20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know
• 20 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips
• 10 Greatest Open Source Software Of 2009
• My 10 UNIX Command Line Mistakes
• Top 5 Email Client For Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Users
• Top 20 OpenSSH Server Best Security Practices
• Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software
• Top 5 Linux Video Editor Software