The kernel packages contain the Linux kernel, the core of any Linux operating system. * A buffer overflow flaw was found in the way the qeth_snmp_command function in the Linux kernel"s QETH network device driver implementation handled SNMP IOCTL requests with an out-of-bounds length. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to crash the system or, potentially, escalate their privileges on the system. * A flaw was found in the way the get_dumpable function return value was interpreted in the ptrace subsystem of the Linux kernel. When "fs.suid_dumpable" was set to 2, a local, unprivileged local user could use this flaw to bypass intended ptrace restrictions and obtain potentially sensitive information. * It was found that certain protocol handlers in the Linux kernel"s networking implementation could set the addr_len value without initializing the associated data structure. A local, unprivileged user could use this flaw to leak kernel stack memory to user space using the recvmsg, recvfrom, and recvmmsg system calls . 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. All kernel users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues. The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.