The kernels used in Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 have been found to have
multiple security problems. This is a list of problems based
on the 2.2.19 release notes as found on
http://www.linux.org.uk/:
- binfmt_misc used user pages directly
- the CPIA driver had an off-by-one error in the buffer code which made
it possible for users to write into kernel memory
- the CPUID and MSR drivers had a problem in the module unloading code
which could cause a system crash if they were set to automatically load
and unload (please note that Debian does not automatically unload kernel
modules)
- There was a possible hang in the classifier code
- The getsockopt and setsockopt system calls did not handle sign bits
correctly which made a local DoS and other attacks possible
- The sysctl system call did not handle sign bits correctly which allowed
a user to write in kernel memory
- ptrace/exec races that could give a local user extra privileges
- possible abuse of a boundary case in the sockfilter code
- SYSV shared memory code could overwrite recently freed memory which might
cause problems
- The packet length checks in the masquerading code were a bit lax
(probably not exploitable)
- Some x86 assembly bugs caused the wrong number of bytes to be copied.
- A local user could deadlock the kernel due to bugs in the UDP port
allocation.
All these problems are fixed in the 2.2.19 kernel, and it is highly
recommend that you upgrade machines to this kernel.
Please note that kernel upgrades are not done automatically. You will
have to explicitly tell the packaging system to install the right kernel
for your system.
