Please Install the Updated Packages.

The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system. This update fixes the following security issue: * It was found that permissions were not checked properly in the Linux kernel when handling the /proc/[pid]/mem writing functionality. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to escalate their privileges. Refer to Red Hat Knowledgebase article DOC-69129, linked to in the References, for further information. (CVE-2012-0056, Important) Red Hat would like to thank Jüri Aedla for reporting this issue. This update fixes the following bugs: * The RHSA-2011:1849 kernel update introduced a bug in the Linux kernel scheduler, causing a &quot WARNING: at kernel/sched.c:5915 thread_return&quot message and a call trace to be logged. This message was harmless, and was not due to any system malfunctions or adverse behavior. With this update, the WARN_ON_ONCE() call in the scheduler that caused this harmless message has been removed. (BZ#768288) * The RHSA-2011:1530 kernel update introduced a regression in the way the Linux kernel maps ELF headers for kernel modules into kernel memory. If a third-party kernel module is compiled on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system with a kernel prior to RHSA-2011:1530, then loading that module on a system with RHSA-2011:1530 kernel would result in corruption of one byte in the memory reserved for the module. In some cases, this could prevent the module from functioning correctly. (BZ#769595) * On some SMP systems the tsc may erroneously be marked as unstable during early system boot or while the system is under heavy load. A &quot Clocksource tsc unstable&quot message was logged when this occurred. As a result the system would switch to the slower access, but higher precision HPET clock. The &quot tsc=reliable&quot kernel parameter is supposed to avoid this problem by indicating that the system has a known good clock, however, the parameter only affected run time checks. A fix has been put in to avoid the boot time checks so that the TSC remains as the clock for the duration of system runtime. (BZ#755867) Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.

kernel on CentOS 6

• http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2012-January/018384.html

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Updated on 2015-03-25