SUSE: 2006-064 Moderate: Kernel Local Privilege Escalation Threat

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______________________________________________________________________________

                        SUSE Security Announcement

        Package:                kernel
        Announcement ID:        SUSE-SA:2006:064
        Date:                   Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:00:00 +0000
        Affected Products:      SuSE Linux Desktop 1.0
                                SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8
                                SuSE Linux Openexchange Server 4
                                SUSE LINUX Retail Solution 8
                                SuSE Linux School Server
                                SuSE Linux Standard Server 8
                                UnitedLinux 1.0
        Vulnerability Type:     local privilege escalation
        Severity (1-10):        6
        SUSE Default Package:   yes
        Cross-References:       CVE-2006-2444, CVE-2006-2935, CVE-2006-3468

    Content of This Advisory:
        1) Security Vulnerability Resolved:
             various Linux 2.4 kernel security problems
           Problem Description
        2) Solution or Work-Around
        3) Special Instructions and Notes
        4) Package Location and Checksums
        5) Pending Vulnerabilities, Solutions, and Work-Arounds:
            none
        6) Authenticity Verification and Additional Information

______________________________________________________________________________

1) Problem Description and Brief Discussion

   The Linux kernel in our old Linux 2.4 kernel based distributions have
   been updated to fix various security issues and bugs.

   The bugs tracked by CVE-2006-3468, CVE-2006-2935, and CVE-2006-2444 were
   already fixed for all other products and announced in SUSE-SA:2006:057
   and SUSE-SA:2006:047 respectively.

   - CVE-2006-3468: Remote attackers able to access an NFS of a ext2 or
                    ext3 filesystem can cause a denial of service (file
                    system panic) via a crafted UDP packet with a V2
                    look-up procedure that specifies a bad file handle
                    (inode number), which triggers an error and causes
                    an exported directory to be remounted read-only.
                    This requires attackers with local network access.

   - CVE-2006-2935: A stack based buffer overflow in CDROM / DVD
		    handling was fixed which could be used by a physical
		    local attacker to crash the kernel or execute code
		    within kernel context, depending on presence of
		    automatic DVD handling in the system. By default
		    our systems do not have automatic DVD handling.

   - CVE-2006-2444: The snmp_trap_decode function in the SNMP NAT helper
                    allows remote attackers to cause a denial of
                    service (crash) via unspecified remote attack
                    vectors that cause failures in snmp_trap_decode
                    that trigger (1) frees of random memory or (2)
                    frees of previously-freed memory (double-free) by
                    snmp_trap_decode as well as its calling function,
                    as demonstrated via certain test cases of the PROTOS
                    SNMP test suite.

   Also the following non-security bugs were fixed:
   - If the IPX network protocol was active, it was theoretically possible
     to remotely crash the machine by special crafted IPX network packets.
     The Linux kernel developers consider this problem not exploitable,
     so no CVE was assigned.
   - Fix dumps with DUMP_LEVEL=2.
   - Fixed some server crashes with "__alloc_pages: 1-order allocation failed
     (gfp=0x1f0/0)" errors.

   Fixes for the S/390:
   - This update contains the following Code Drops from Developerworks:

     Patchcluster 36
     - Problem-ID:  26014 qeth: stack trace with msg "inconsistent lock state"
     - Problem-ID:  27706 kernel: user readable uninitialized kernel memory.

     For further description of the named Problem-IDs, please look to
     https://www.ibm.com/us-en

2) Solution or Work-Around

   There is no known workaround, please install the update packages.

3) Special Instructions and Notes

   None.

4) Package Location and Checksums

   The preferred method for installing security updates is to use the YaST
   Online Update (YOU) tool. YOU detects which updates are required and
   automatically performs the necessary steps to verify and install them.
   Alternatively, download the update packages for your distribution manually
   and verify their integrity by the methods listed in Section 6 of this
   announcement. Then install the packages using the command

     rpm -Fhv 

   to apply the update, replacing  with the filename of the
   downloaded RPM package.

   Our maintenance customers are notified individually. The packages are
   offered for installation from the maintenance web:

   SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for IBM zSeries
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/aabad90e230984722c9884260efe69ee.html

   SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for IBM S/390 and IBM zSeries
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/d90b894a706940fd53a7fb1d73dfc9d4.html

   SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for IBM iSeries and IBM pSeries
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/ab257334465861fd968252a7b2bc1f3d.html

   SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for IPF
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/85e547a01d9aab2432eaa26b0163cda9.html

   SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for AMD64
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/953fbe496665b510e79cafb4d6f28837.html

   SuSE Linux Desktop 1.0
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/7464b65661cf57554b4ee821ea0bbf40.html

   UnitedLinux 1.0
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/85e547a01d9aab2432eaa26b0163cda9.html
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/953fbe496665b510e79cafb4d6f28837.html
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/09c539304999e790397997e9b73bc166.html

   SuSE Linux Openexchange Server 4
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/09c539304999e790397997e9b73bc166.html

   SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/aabad90e230984722c9884260efe69ee.html
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/d90b894a706940fd53a7fb1d73dfc9d4.html
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/ab257334465861fd968252a7b2bc1f3d.html
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/85e547a01d9aab2432eaa26b0163cda9.html
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/953fbe496665b510e79cafb4d6f28837.html
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/09c539304999e790397997e9b73bc166.html

   SuSE Linux Standard Server 8
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/09c539304999e790397997e9b73bc166.html

   SuSE Linux School Server
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/09c539304999e790397997e9b73bc166.html

   SUSE LINUX Retail Solution 8
     http://support.novell.com/techcenter/psdb/09c539304999e790397997e9b73bc166.html

______________________________________________________________________________

5) Pending Vulnerabilities, Solutions, and Work-Arounds:

   none
______________________________________________________________________________

6) Authenticity Verification and Additional Information

  - Announcement authenticity verification:

    SUSE security announcements are published via mailing lists and on Web
    sites. The authenticity and integrity of a SUSE security announcement is
    guaranteed by a cryptographic signature in each announcement. All SUSE
    security announcements are published with a valid signature.

    To verify the signature of the announcement, save it as text into a file
    and run the command

      gpg --verify 

    replacing  with the name of the file where you saved the
    announcement. The output for a valid signature looks like:

      gpg: Signature made  using RSA key ID 3D25D3D9
      gpg: Good signature from "SuSE Security Team "

    where  is replaced by the date the document was signed.

    If the security team's key is not contained in your key ring, you can
    import it from the first installation CD. To import the key, use the
    command

      gpg --import gpg-pubkey-3d25d3d9-36e12d04.asc

  - Package authenticity verification:

    SUSE update packages are available on many mirror FTP servers all over the
    world. While this service is considered valuable and important to the free
    and open source software community, the authenticity and the integrity of
    a package needs to be verified to ensure that it has not been tampered
    with.

    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) Using the internal gpg signatures of the rpm package
    2) MD5 checksums as provided in this announcement

    1) The internal 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, replacing  with the
       filename of the RPM package downloaded. The package is unmodified if it
       contains a valid signature from build@suse.de with the key ID 9C800ACA.

       This key is automatically imported into the RPM database (on
       RPMv4-based distributions) and the gpg key ring of 'root' during
       installation. You can also find it on the first installation CD and at
       the end of this announcement.

    2) If you need an alternative means of verification, use the md5sum
       command to verify the authenticity of the packages. 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
       SUSE security announcement. Because the announcement containing the
       checksums is cryptographically signed (by security@suse.de), the
       checksums show proof of the authenticity of the package if the
       signature of the announcement is valid. Note that the md5 sums
       published in the SUSE Security Announcements are valid for the
       respective packages only. Newer versions of these packages cannot be
       verified.

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

    suse-security@suse.com
        -   General Linux and SUSE security discussion.
            All SUSE security announcements are sent to this list.
            To subscribe, send an e-mail 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 e-mail to
                .

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

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