The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system.
Paul Starzetz discovered a flaw in bounds checking in mremap() in the Linux
kernel versions 2.4.23 and previous which may allow a local attacker to
gain root privileges. No exploit is currently available; however, it is
believed that this issue is exploitable (although not trivially.) The
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned
the name CAN-2003-0985 to this issue.
All users are advised to upgrade to these errata packages, which contain a
backported security patch that corrects this issue.
Red Hat would like to thank Paul Starzetz from ISEC for disclosing this
issue as well as Andrea Arcangeli and Solar Designer for working on the patch.
These packages also contain a fix for a minor information leak in the real
time clock (rtc) routines. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project
(cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2003-0984 to this issue.
We have provided kernel updates for Red Hat Linux 7.1-8.0 with this
advisory as these were prepared by us prior to December 31 2003. Please
note that Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0 have reached their end of
life for errata support and no further errata will be issued for those
distributions.
