Important: kernel security and bug fix update

Updated kernel packages that fix two security issues and two bugs are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 Extended Update Support.

This update has been rated as having important security impact by the Red
Hat Security Response Team.

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux
operating system.

This update includes backported fixes for two approved security issues.
These issues only affected users of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 Extended
Update Support, as they have already been addressed for users of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 4 in the 4.8 update, RHSA-2009:1024.

* the exit_notify() function in the Linux kernel did not properly reset the
exit signal if a process executed a set user ID (setuid) application before
exiting. This could allow a local, unprivileged user to elevate their
privileges. (CVE-2009-1337, Important)

* the Linux kernel implementation of the Network File System (NFS) version
4 did not properly initialize the file name limit in the nfs_server data
structure. This flaw could possibly lead to a denial of service on a client
mounting an NFSv4 share. (CVE-2009-1336, Moderate)

This update fixes the following bugs:

* on IBM System z systems, if the cio driver was used for DASD devices, and
the last path to a DASD device was varied off, it was still possible to
attempt read and write operations to that device, resulting in errors. In
this update, path verification is used in this situation, which resolves
this issue. Also, a bug may have caused errors when subchannels were
unregistered. (BZ#437486)

* a bug prevented the Broadcom NetXtreme II 57710 network device from
working correctly on some Dell PowerEdge R805 systems. This device was
correctly shown in "lspci" output, but "ifup" failed and an IP address was
not assigned. In this update, the device works correctly on Dell PowerEdge
R805 systems. (BZ#491752)

Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported
patches to correct these issues. For this update to take effect, the system
must be rebooted.

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

491752 - For Broadcom(r) BMC57710, modprobe bnx2* fails citing memory allocation failures
493771 - CVE-2009-1337 kernel: exit_notify: kill the wrong capable(CAP_KILL) check
494074 - CVE-2009-1336 kernel: nfsv4 client can be crashed by stating a long filename

http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-1336
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-1337
http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important