The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system. This update fixes the following security issues: * A flaw was found in the way the Linux kernel"s Stream Control Transmission Protocol implementation handled duplicate cookies. If a local user queried SCTP connection information at the same time a remote attacker has initialized a crafted SCTP connection to the system, it could trigger a NULL pointer dereference, causing the system to crash. * It was found that the fix for CVE-2012-3552 released via RHSA-2012:1540 introduced an invalid free flaw in the Linux kernel"s TCP/IP protocol suite implementation. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to corrupt kernel memory via crafted sendmsg calls, allowing them to cause a denial of service or, potentially, escalate their privileges on the system. * An invalid pointer dereference flaw was found in the Linux kernel"s TCP/IP protocol suite implementation. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system or, potentially, escalate their privileges on the system by using sendmsg with an IPv6 socket connected to an IPv4 destination. * Information leak flaws in the Linux kernel could allow a privileged, local user to leak kernel memory to user-space. This update also fixes several bugs. Documentation for these changes will be available shortly from the Technical Notes document linked to in the References section. 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.