Linux 2.4.27-rc5

Hi,

Here goes the fifth release candidate of kernel v2.4.27.

It includes a handful of XFS fixes, a network update (Bluetooth, Netfilter, bridge), it revert problematic DVD-RW support for now (should be back in 2.4.28).

Most importantly this release fixes an exploitable race in file offset handling which allows unpriviledged users from potentially reading kernel memory. This touches several drivers and generic proc code. This issue is covered by CAN-2004-0415.
Vendors should be releasing their updates real soon now.

Here are the most important security issues fixed by the 2.4.27 release:

CAN-2004-0495 (Al Viro sparse fixes)
CAN-2004-0497 (users could modify group ID of arbitrary files on the system) CAN-2004-0535 (e1000 minor info leak)
CAN-2004-0685 (backported Conectiva usb sparse fixes) CAN-2004-0415 (file offset pointer handling race)
CAN-2004-0565 (information leak ia64)

-final should be out in a few days if nothing bad shows up.

For more details please read the detailed changelog.

Summary of changes from v2.4.27-rc4 to v2.4.27-rc5
============================================

Adrian Bunk:
o [NET]: Update CONFIG_NET_SCH_NETEM Configure.help entry

Chris Wright:
o ethtool_get_regs copy right number of bytes to user

Eric Sandeen:
o [XFS] Don't lock down user pages when doing direct IO; this can lead to trouble (double-locking zero page, etc).

Harald Welte:
o [NETFILTER]: ipt_ULOG fix for packet delay
o [NETFILTER]: Fix broken debug assertion

Marcel Holtmann:
o [Bluetooth] Fix kernel panic when device config fails
o [Bluetooth] Replace BCSP retransmitting message with BT_DBG
o [Bluetooth] Fix resetting to default filters
o [Bluetooth] Send HCI_Reset for ISSC USB dongles

Marcelo Tosatti:

  o Revert DVD-RW write support for now: [email protected]|ChangeSet|20040606235035|46544
  o Cset exclude: [email protected]|ChangeSet|20040607195639|57919

o Remove mm/page_alloc.c debugging
o Al Viro and others: Fix file offset handling races in several drivers
o Changed EXTRAVERSION to -rc5
o update-i386-defconfig.patch

Nathan Scott:
o [XFS] Fix data loss problem - we no longer update i_size anywhere without holding i_sem for 2.4 as well.
o [XFS] Fix diotest4 test case issues with direct reads in XFS

Ralf Bächle:
o Fix non-use of HZ in 6pack.c

Stephen Hemminger:
o bridge fix
o [TCP]: Bic tcp congestion calculation timestamp
o [PKT_SCHED]: netem limit not returned correctly

Breaks the build with gcc 2.95. Trivial fix below:

@@ -736,8 +736,9 @@ static ssize_t br2684_proc_read(struct f
 {
 	unsigned long page;
 	int len = 0, x, left;
-	page = get_free_page(GFP_KERNEL);
 	loff_t n = *pos;
+
+	page = get_free_page(GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!page)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 	left = PAGE_SIZE - 256;

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- [email protected]

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
-- Linus Torvalds