The kernel automatically evaluates partition tables of storage devices. The code for evaluating GUID partitions (in fs/partitions/efi.c) contains a bug that can cause a kernel heap overflow on certain corrupted GUID partition tables. Upstream commit: http://git.kernel.org/linus/fa039d5f6b126fbd65eefa05db2f67e44df8f121 Acknowledgements: Red Hat would like to thank Timo Warns for reporting this issue.
Statement: This issue affects the versions of Linux kernel as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise 4, 5, 6, and Red Hat Enterprise MRG. This has been addressed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, and Red Hat Enterprise MRG via https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-0927.html and https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-1189.html, and https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-1253.html. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 is now in Production 3 of the maintenance life-cycle, https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/, therefore the fix for this issue is not currently planned to be included in the future updates.
CVE-2011-1776 addresses the size of partition entries used for allocating a data structure.
This issue has been addressed in following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Via RHSA-2011:0927 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-0927.html
This issue has been addressed in following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Via RHSA-2011:1189 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-1189.html
This issue has been addressed in following products: MRG for RHEL-6 v.2 Via RHSA-2011:1253 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-1253.html