Updated kernel packages that fix two security issues are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having important security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section. The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linuxoperating system.This update fixes the following security issues:* A flaw was found in the way file permission checks for the"/dev/cpu/[x]/msr" files were performed in restricted root environments . A local user with the ability to write to these files could use this flaw to escalate their privileges to kernel level, for example, by writing to the SYSENTER_EIP_MSR register. * A race condition was found in the way the Linux kernel's ptraceimplementation handled PTRACE_SETREGS requests when the debuggee was wokendue to a SIGKILL signal instead of being stopped. A local, unprivilegeduser could use this flaw to escalate their privileges. Users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backportedpatches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for thisupdate to take effect.