Technical Description

Two vulnerabilities were identified in Linux Kernel, which could be exploited by local attackers to gain knowledge of sensitive information or cause a denial of service.

The first flaw is due to an error in the "dm-crypt" [drivers/md/dm-crypt.c] driver that fails to properly clear memory before freeing it, which could be exploited by malicious users to disclose sensitive about cryptographic keys.

The second issue is due to an error in the "mq_open" system call decrements a counter twice as a result of multiple calls to the "mntput" function when the "dentry_open" function call fails, which could be exploited by malicious users to cause a denial of service.

Affected Products

Linux Kernel version 2.6.15.1 and prior

Solution

Upgrade to Linux Kernel version 2.6.15.2 :
http://www.kernel.org

References

http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2006/0235
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.15.2

Credits

Vulnerabilities reported by Stefan Rompf and Doug Chapman

ChangeLog

2006-01-17 : Initial release
2006-01-31 : Updated Solution

Vulnerability Management

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