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______________________________________________________________________________

                        SUSE Security Announcement

        Package:                kernel
        Announcement-ID:        SUSE-SA:2004:044
        Date:                   Tuesday, Dec 21st 2004 18:00 MEST
        Affected products:      SUSE Linux 8.1, 8.2, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2
                                SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, 9
                                SUSE Linux Desktop 1.0
                                Novell Linux Desktop 9
        Vulnerability Type:     local privilege escalation
                                remote denial of service
                                local denial of service
        Severity (1-10):        9
        SUSE default package:   yes
        Cross References:       CAN-2004-1068
                                CAN-2004-1016
                                CAN-2004-1137
                                CAN-2004-1151

    Content of this advisory:
        1) security vulnerability resolved:
             - several vulnerabilities in the linux kernel
           problem description
        2) solution/workaround
        3) special instructions and notes
        4) package location and checksums
        5) pending vulnerabilities, solutions, workarounds:
            - problem with smbfs in earlier update
            - see SUSE Security Summary Report
        6) standard appendix (further information)

______________________________________________________________________________

1) problem description, brief discussion

    Linux kernel

        Several vulnerabilities have been found and fixed in the Linux
        kernel.


        Paul Starzetz reported that the missing serialization in
        unix_dgram_recvmsg() which was added to kernel 2.4.28 can
        be used by a local attacker to gain elevated privileges (root
        access). This issue is tracked by the Mitre CVE ID CAN-2004-1068.

        Paul Starzetz and Georgi Guninski reported independently that bad
        argument handling and bad integer arithmetics in the IPv4 sendmsg
        handling of control messages could lead to a local attacker crashing
        the machine.
        This problem was fixed by Herbert Xu and is tracked by the Mitre
        CVE ID CAN-2004-1016.

        Georgi Guninski reported a memory leak in the IP option handling
        of the IPv4 sendmsg call.

        Paul Starzetz found bad handling in the kernel IGMP code, which
        could lead to a local attacker being able to crash the machine.
        This problem was fixed by Chris Wright and is tracked by the Mitre
        CVE ID CAN-2004-1137.

        Olaf Kirch found and fixed a problem in the RPC handling in the
        kernel of SUSE Linux 9.1, 9.2, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
        which could lead to a remote attacker crashing the machine.

        A local denial of service problem in the aio_free_ring system call
        could allow a local attacker to crash the machine.

        A problem in the memory management handling of ELF executables could
        lead to a local attacker crashing the machine with a handcrafted
        ELF binary. (This is a VMA overlap problem and not related to 
        earlier ELF problems.)

        A buffer overflow in the system call handling in the 32bit system
        call emulation on AMD64 / Intel EM64T systems was fixed. It is not
        thought to be exploitable.

        A memory leak in the ip_conntrack_ftp firewalling module was fixed
        in the 2.6 kernels.

        Various UML security issues in the SUSE Linux 9.2 UML setup
        were fixed.


        Additionally some non-security bugs were fixed in the released
        kernels:

	SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 and SUSE Linux 8.1:
	- A memory leak in addition / removal of SCSI target devices was
          fixed.

        - A race condition in SCSI I/O accounting which could lead to 
          erroneous reports on SCSI disk I/O was fixed.

        - S390: Patches from IBM have been installed in the S/390
          architecture, both for 32 and 64bit.
          Refer to the maintenance information mail for the full change log.
        
	- The "memfrac" and "lower_zone_reserve" kernel parameters had
          no effect since they were used before kernel command line parsing.

        - PowerPC: Missing synchronization that could lead to processes
          hanging in signal delivery was added.


	SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and SUSE Linux 9.1:
        - A vfree() was called with interrupts disabled in the SCSI generic
          device handling, which could lead to a hanging machine.

        - A race condition between a file unlink and umount could lead to a
          machine crash.

        - Fixed a small memory leak in bio_copy_user().

        - cdrecord -scanbus could crash the kernel when using the "gdth" SCSI
          driver.

        - Allow reading from zero page (/dev/zero) using O_DIRECT/rawio.

        - Fixed some LSB issues in the fcntl compatibility handling.

        - The st (SCSI tape) driver did not pass on generic SCSI ioctl
          commands to the SCSI mid layer.


        SUSE Linux 9.2:
        - The kernel installation routines did not call depmod for the modules
          in the -nongpl RPMs, so they could not be loaded.
          This lead to non working USB modem drivers and similar.
          This problem was fixed.

        - A Problem with mounting iPods over FireWire was fixed.

        - A data corruption problem in the megaraid driver was fixed.

        - A pageattr overflow condition in the memory subsystem
          and missing TLB flush if multiple pages were passed were fixed.

        - Allow reading from zeropage with O_DIRECT/rawio.

        - Do not restart the system on ACPI events after power down.
          (Make it no longer start on opening the lid of just shutdown
           laptops for instance.)

        - New memory imbalance handling handling by Andrea leading
          to better Out Of Memory (OOM) handling was added.


2) solution/workaround

    Please install the fixed packages, there is no workaround.


3) special instructions and notes

    SPECIAL INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:
    =============================    The following paragraphs will guide you through the installation
    process in a step-by-step fashion. The character sequence "****"
    marks the beginning of a new paragraph. In some cases, the steps
    outlined in a particular paragraph may or may not be applicable
    to your situation.
    Therefore, please make sure to read through all of the steps below
    before attempting any of these procedures.
    All of the commands that need to be executed are required to be
    run as the superuser (root). Each step relies on the steps before
    it to complete successfully.


  **** Step 1: Determine the needed kernel type

    Please use the following command to find the kernel type that is
    installed on your system:

      rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz

    Following are the possible kernel types (disregard the version and
    build number following the name separated by the "-" character)

      k_deflt   # default kernel, good for most systems.
      k_i386    # kernel for older processors and chip sets
      k_athlon  # kernel made specifically for AMD Athlon(tm) family processors      k_psmp    # kernel for Pentium-I dual processor systems
      k_smp     # kernel for SMP systems (Pentium-II and above)
      k_smp4G   # kernel for SMP systems which supports a maximum of 4G of RAM
      kernel-64k-pagesize
      kernel-bigsmp
      kernel-default
      kernel-smp

  **** Step 2: Download the package for your system

    Please download the kernel RPM package for your distribution with the
    name as indicated by Step 1. The list of all kernel rpm packages is
    appended below. Note: The kernel-source package does not
    contain a binary kernel in bootable form. Instead, it contains the
    sources that the binary kernel rpm packages are created from. It can be
    used by administrators who have decided to build their own kernel.
    Since the kernel-source.rpm is an installable (compiled) package that
    contains sources for the linux kernel, it is not the source RPM for
    the kernel RPM binary packages.

    The kernel RPM binary packages for the distributions can be found at the
    locations below .

      8.1/rpm/i586
      8.2/rpm/i586
      9.0/rpm/i586
      9.1/rpm/i586
      9.2/rpm/i586

    After downloading the kernel RPM package for your system, you should
    verify the authenticity of the kernel rpm package using the methods as
    listed in section 3) of each SUSE Security Announcement.


  **** Step 3: Installing your kernel rpm package

    Install the rpm package that you have downloaded in Steps 3 or 4 with
    the command
        rpm -Uhv --nodeps --force 
    where  is the name of the rpm package that you downloaded.

    Warning: After performing this step, your system will likely not be
             able to boot if the following steps have not been fully
             followed.


    If you run SUSE LINUX 8.1 and haven't applied the kernel update
    (SUSE-SA:2003:034), AND you are using the freeswan package, you also
    need to update the freeswan rpm as a dependency as offered
    by YOU (YaST Online Update). The package can be downloaded from
    8.1/rpm/i586/

  **** Step 4: configuring and creating the initrd

    The initrd is a ramdisk that is loaded into the memory of your
    system together with the kernel boot image by the bootloader. The
    kernel uses the content of this ramdisk to execute commands that must
    be run before the kernel can mount its actual root filesystem. It is
    usually used to initialize SCSI drivers or NIC drivers for diskless
    operation.

    The variable INITRD_MODULES in /etc/sysconfig/kernel determines
    which kernel modules will be loaded in the initrd before the kernel
    has mounted its actual root filesystem. The variable should contain
    your SCSI adapter (if any) or filesystem driver modules.

    With the installation of the new kernel, the initrd has to be
    re-packed with the update kernel modules. Please run the command

      mk_initrd

    as root to create a new init ramdisk (initrd) for your system.
    On SuSE Linux 8.1 and later, this is done automatically when the
    RPM is installed.


  **** Step 5: bootloader

    If you run a SUSE LINUX 8.x, SLES8, or SUSE LINUX 9.x system, there
    are two options:
    Depending on your software configuration, you have either the lilo
    bootloader or the grub bootloader installed and initialized on your
    system.
    The grub bootloader does not require any further actions to be
    performed after the new kernel images have been moved in place by the
    rpm Update command.
    If you have a lilo bootloader installed and initialized, then the lilo
    program must be run as root. Use the command

      grep LOADER_TYPE /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

    to find out which boot loader is configured. If it is lilo, then you
    must run the lilo command as root. If grub is listed, then your system
    does not require any bootloader initialization.

    Warning: An improperly installed bootloader may render your system
             unbootable.

  **** Step 6: reboot

    If all of the steps above have been successfully completed on your
    system, then the new kernel including the kernel modules and the
    initrd should be ready to boot. The system needs to be rebooted for
    the changes to become active. Please make sure that all steps have
    completed, then reboot using the command
        shutdown -r now
    or
        init 6

    Your system should now shut down and reboot with the new kernel.


4) package location and checksums

    Please download the update package for your distribution and verify its
    integrity by the methods listed in section 3) of this announcement.
    Then, install the package using the command "rpm -Fhv file.rpm" to apply
    the update.
    Our maintenance customers are being notified individually. The packages
    are being offered to install from the maintenance web.


    x86 Platform:

    SUSE Linux 9.2:
    9.2/rpm/i586/kernel-source-2.6.8-24.8.i586.rpm
      8dc5b70f5fdef7c0437372d2811bcb02
    9.2/rpm/i586/kernel-default-2.6.8-24.8.i586.rpm
      134c37732850c86ef872c97171c81ede
    9.2/rpm/i586/kernel-smp-2.6.8-24.8.i586.rpm
      f552ef1f49675a4e8dc8f71ad7829ed1
    9.2/rpm/i586/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.8-24.8.i586.rpm
      ea2be2b3152a5b6d362636cc29534007
    9.2/rpm/i586/kernel-default-nongpl-2.6.8-24.8.i586.rpm
      f5af05e9e7ec387fe1ce755b8f53a022
    9.2/rpm/i586/kernel-smp-nongpl-2.6.8-24.8.i586.rpm
      94e01d31f7cdda2a2ae00377613ad625
          f3437bd22be65df11df36b9722f15fa7
    9.2/rpm/i586/um-host-kernel-2.6.8-24.8.i586.rpm
      772e6200300a11d137383e51486cd159
    9.2/rpm/i586/um-host-install-initrd-1.0-48.3.i586.rpm
      00eba31f6adc46309c4be34ddd477d1a
    patch rpm(s):
    9.2/rpm/i586/um-host-kernel-2.6.8-24.8.i586.patch.rpm
      00d6b04af9b54eaff147d7267d66ae08
    9.2/rpm/i586/um-host-install-initrd-1.0-48.3.i586.patch.rpm
      2de74bf6f185d1c732412945147c4914
    source rpm(s):
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-source-2.6.8-24.8.src.rpm
      bc9e4a08ba429884716d9e1768ca7391
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-default-2.6.8-24.8.nosrc.rpm
      0cbc4714154be7df7a18fda4c5ca595b
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-smp-2.6.8-24.8.nosrc.rpm
      451d4c51a5d4083b4e663913bb53e622
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.8-24.8.nosrc.rpm
      292bc1aab35f113099765e01f5c87b8e
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-default-2.6.8-24.8.nosrc.rpm
      0cbc4714154be7df7a18fda4c5ca595b
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-smp-2.6.8-24.8.nosrc.rpm
      451d4c51a5d4083b4e663913bb53e622
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.8-24.8.nosrc.rpm
      292bc1aab35f113099765e01f5c87b8e
    9.2/rpm/src/kernel-um-2.6.8-24.8.nosrc.rpm
      32aeaea2ff952d83cfd2cf94b1358d33
    9.2/rpm/src/um-host-install-initrd-1.0-48.3.src.rpm
      bc079272affb6c4a444ff0eed5668c58

    SUSE Linux 9.1:
    9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-source-2.6.5-7.111.19.i586.rpm
      b5905fea74dd7c6b43896506c28a23d7
          35fd6f0047d3666f6402b07175c69ce2
    9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.111.19.i586.rpm
      0a41cb4c8a9325b15ffee9407af62e08
    9.1/rpm/i586/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.5-7.111.19.i586.rpm
      4cc0c401f76b7d5109dfbd7e2775c83f
    source rpm(s):
    9.1/rpm/src/kernel-source-2.6.5-7.111.19.src.rpm
      cbfd74fdb9bb2c9017f281a7ffe3ea0c
    9.1/rpm/src/kernel-default-2.6.5-7.111.19.nosrc.rpm
      11708c86166aff33fe48157d998139a3
    9.1/rpm/src/kernel-smp-2.6.5-7.111.19.nosrc.rpm
      5989481ab5506a2a8ee539b172fd3a3e
    9.1/rpm/src/kernel-bigsmp-2.6.5-7.111.19.nosrc.rpm
      25e8246b9d18d6bac0087ccd16012c8b

    SUSE Linux 9.0:
    9.0/rpm/i586/kernel-source-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      3fabe8709c6f108985e6db14d8eddd68
    9.0/rpm/i586/k_deflt-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      d7d5f9d018ed62aa4785046128509de7
    9.0/rpm/i586/k_smp-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      151eec47b73e0aab0376a8d4dd108607
    9.0/rpm/i586/k_athlon-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      ea1f74c173b2fac8bc5a335de2304e3f
    source rpm(s):
    9.0/rpm/src/kernel-source-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      06dea7c190f66312cee81b9d59f6b968
    9.0/rpm/src/k_deflt-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      63b4cdc0ef1549057931da01b3ebc1a3
    9.0/rpm/src/k_smp-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      1636bcd52054dd60493def485fa00576
    9.0/rpm/src/k_athlon-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      0f2ab3b06dc3be82a31317cece16ad7b

    SUSE Linux 8.2:
    8.2/rpm/i586/kernel-source-2.4.20.SuSE-127.i586.rpm
      1baebbe7215434dec73aeaec61b68579
    8.2/rpm/i586/k_deflt-2.4.20-127.i586.rpm
      500299c75a582d4ac4fb9d9d56e6ce9d
    8.2/rpm/i586/k_smp-2.4.20-127.i586.rpm
      6cee78e7216c8fa9b07a5b78c7a0b774
    8.2/rpm/i586/k_athlon-2.4.20-127.i586.rpm
      e15fe145d9d62977f89f3647d43d6692
    8.2/rpm/i586/k_psmp-2.4.20-127.i586.rpm
      a88e3cd46a56f49f4846d151a05d4430
    source rpm(s):
    8.2/rpm/src/kernel-source-2.4.20.SuSE-127.src.rpm
      bd4ba934e3ce4dec888fcaf26e5dec38
    8.2/rpm/src/k_deflt-2.4.20-127.src.rpm
      c1e43e827b7d2db8d0a189daf33c3eee
    8.2/rpm/src/k_smp-2.4.20-127.src.rpm
      3871dac3965594d5e368fd91f56f07cb
    8.2/rpm/src/k_athlon-2.4.20-127.src.rpm
      74d66b02ab0cadb0cc6709068f30e7e5
    8.2/rpm/src/k_psmp-2.4.20-127.src.rpm
      318b66cbf216317af917bc8e7cc28fea

    SUSE Linux 8.1:
    8.1/rpm/i586/kernel-source-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      496f775186fb745b86e7545e9f13e7bd
    8.1/rpm/i586/k_deflt-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      174fd559a0378e35aa11fb2d93a2684b
    8.1/rpm/i586/k_smp-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      add6505218c8f6929d79305ee7343727
    8.1/rpm/i586/k_athlon-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      3cc4344755df9721d20d717a0ff2ecc4
    8.1/rpm/i586/k_psmp-2.4.21-266.i586.rpm
      a2b0cb0c0181f4dc5a072e21789dc585
    source rpm(s):
    8.1/rpm/src/kernel-source-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      40d6ed2f4c77f2225bed7a5dd7f8e346
    8.1/rpm/src/k_deflt-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      70e9a1131849f3d98c8d5009915abb52
    8.1/rpm/src/k_smp-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      b7eb4f46bd06cab9aa1ad7c97264c96c
    8.1/rpm/src/k_athlon-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      66879d8b6ffff23e44895bbfa6c1c644
    8.1/rpm/src/k_psmp-2.4.21-266.src.rpm
      ade3afd2816ba005650b82de9dc1da7b



    x86-64 Platform:

    SUSE Linux 9.2:
          dca3907a9c0e31ea7fd3cb13f6d7a2c7
          22d4f74fe29eae1acb8a4dacbed16c26
          b38935409955a9f7e427532f1a9a110e
          a4196f62b128a4d59106b6e4fb91a89d
          7ab6d19efe01324674c3ff0f06740d99
    source rpm(s):
          bc9e4a08ba429884716d9e1768ca7391
          0cbc4714154be7df7a18fda4c5ca595b
          451d4c51a5d4083b4e663913bb53e622
          0cbc4714154be7df7a18fda4c5ca595b
          451d4c51a5d4083b4e663913bb53e622

    SUSE Linux 9.1:
          9eaf681cb5ce3d0bca96dc93c2cbbe4d
          1be1de01f36069168846ca611a9c493a
          905182441a3e0dfc19d241249f0bcd43
    source rpm(s):
          07caa57a7b036cc4e22f73744f0378f3
          15b023f310014e3327dde1a0bcf746c1
          10c39d732cbafaeabb21f64aab518602

    SUSE Linux 9.0:
          981d7abbc9dd7774c724a3aec2508db1
          47e4ec4f93d49abc0459a058526c1fb6
          03b0c0787d0a818634b11d4bbc533a38
          8877a1ca2ea3cb393aa96be727ca362e
    source rpm(s):
          326f9c08d5f92ccc3bca476977b745d6
          ab01bf0aa3117ce642cc2eedebbba41b
          714b10cc3466776599cab8237223165f
          52c705df37ed9e44bb2943af318d8500
______________________________________________________________________________

5)  Pending vulnerabilities in SUSE Distributions and Workarounds:

    Please see our Security Summary Report.


    - problem with smbfs in the previous kernel update

      We received reports of smbfs being broken by our last kernel
      update (released on Dec 1st, SUSE-SA:2004:042).

      This apparently only affects the smbfs filesystem on 2.6 kernels,
      so SUSE Linux 9.1, 9.2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Novell
      Linux Desktop 9.

      This problem is unfortunately not yet fixed in this security
      update, we will be releasing fixed packages in the begin of next
      year.

      As workaround please change to use the cifs filesystem if
      possible, which replaces smbfs in the 2.6 kernel series.


______________________________________________________________________________

6)  standard appendix: authenticity verification, additional information

  - Package authenticity verification:

    SUSE update packages are available on many mirror ftp servers all over
    the world. While this service is being considered valuable and important
    to the free and open source software community, many users wish to be
    sure about the origin of the package and its content before installing
    the package. There are two verification methods that can be used
    independently from each other to prove the authenticity of a downloaded
    file or rpm package:
    1) md5sums as provided in the (cryptographically signed) announcement.
    2) using the internal gpg signatures of the rpm package.

    1) execute the command
        md5sum 
       after you downloaded the file from a SUSE ftp server or its mirrors.
       Then, compare the resulting md5sum with the one that is listed in the
       announcement. Since the announcement containing the checksums is
       cryptographically signed (usually using the key security@suse.de),
       the checksums show proof of the authenticity of the package.
       We disrecommend to subscribe to security lists which cause the
       email message containing the announcement to be modified so that
       the signature does not match after transport through the mailing
       list software.
       Downsides: You must be able to verify the authenticity of the
       announcement in the first place. If RPM packages are being rebuilt
       and a new version of a package is published on the ftp server, all
       md5 sums for the files are useless.

    2) rpm package signatures provide an easy way to verify the authenticity
       of an rpm package. Use the command
        rpm -v --checksig 
       to verify the signature of the package, where  is the
       filename of the rpm package that you have downloaded. Of course,
       package authenticity verification can only target an un-installed rpm
       package file.
       Prerequisites:
        a) gpg is installed
        b) The package is signed using a certain key. The public part of this
           key must be installed by the gpg program in the directory
           ~/.gnupg/ under the user's home directory who performs the
           signature verification (usually root). You can import the key
           that is used by SUSE in rpm packages for SUSE Linux by saving
           this announcement to a file ("announcement.txt") and
           running the command (do "su -" to be root):
            gpg --batch; gpg < announcement.txt | gpg --import
           SUSE Linux distributions version 7.1 and thereafter install the
           key "build@suse.de" upon installation or upgrade, provided that
           the package gpg is installed. The file containing the public key
           is placed at the top-level directory of the first CD (pubring.gpg)
           and at ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/pubring.gpg-build.suse.de .


  - SUSE runs two security mailing lists to which any interested party may
    subscribe:

    suse-security@suse.com
        -   general/linux/SUSE security discussion.
            All SUSE security announcements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an email to
                .

    suse-security-announce@suse.com
        -   SUSE's announce-only mailing list.
            Only SUSE's security announcements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an email to
                .

    For general information or the frequently asked questions (FAQ)
    send mail to:
         or
         respectively.

    ====================================================================    SUSE's security contact is  or .
    The  public key is listed below.
    ====================================================================