Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 RHSA-2015-0290-01 Important Kernel Security Fix

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system.
* A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's XFS file system handled replacing of remote attributes under certain conditions. A local user with access to XFS file system mount could potentially use this flaw to escalate their privileges on the system. (CVE-2015-0274, Important)
* It was found that the Linux kernel's KVM implementation did not ensure that the host CR4 control register value remained unchanged across VM entries on the same virtual CPU. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to cause denial of service on the system. (CVE-2014-3690, Moderate)
* A flaw was found in the way Linux kernel's Transparent Huge Pages (THP) implementation handled non-huge page migration. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the kernel by migrating transparent hugepages. (CVE-2014-3940, Moderate)
* An out-of-bounds memory access flaw was found in the syscall tracing functionality of the Linux kernel's perf subsystem. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system. (CVE-2014-7825, Moderate)
* An out-of-bounds memory access flaw was found in the syscall tracing functionality of the Linux kernel's ftrace subsystem. On a system with ftrace syscall tracing enabled, a local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system, or escalate their privileges. (CVE-2014-7826, Moderate)
* A race condition flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ext4 file system implementation that allowed a local, unprivileged user to crash the system by simultaneously writing to a file and toggling the O_DIRECT flag using fcntl(F_SETFL) on that file. (CVE-2014-8086, Moderate)
* A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's netfilter subsystem handled generic protocol tracking. As demonstrated in the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) case, a remote attacker could use this flaw to bypass intended iptables rule restrictions when the associated connection tracking module was not loaded on the system. (CVE-2014-8160, Moderate)
* It was found that due to excessive files_lock locking, a soft lockup could be triggered in the Linux kernel when performing asynchronous I/O operations. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system. (CVE-2014-8172, Moderate)
* A NULL pointer dereference flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel's madvise MADV_WILLNEED functionality handled page table locking. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system. (CVE-2014-8173, Moderate)
* An information leak flaw was found in the Linux kernel's IEEE 802.11 wireless networking implementation. When software encryption was used, a remote attacker could use this flaw to leak up to 8 bytes of plaintext. (CVE-2014-8709, Low)
* A stack-based buffer overflow flaw was found in the TechnoTrend/Hauppauge DEC USB device driver. A local user with write access to the corresponding device could use this flaw to crash the kernel or, potentially, elevate their privileges on the system. (CVE-2014-8884, Low)
Red Hat would like to thank Eric Windisch of the Docker project for reporting CVE-2015-0274, Andy Lutomirski for reporting CVE-2014-3690, and Robert Święcki for reporting CVE-2014-7825 and CVE-2014-7826.
This update also fixes several hundred bugs and adds numerous enhancements. Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 Release Notes for information on the most significant of these changes, and the following Knowledgebase article for further information: https://access.redhat.com/articles/1352803
All Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 users are advised to install these updated packages, which correct these issues and add these enhancements. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.