[DSA 1381-1] New Linux 2.6.18 packages fix several vulnerabilities

Hi all,

----- Forwarded message from dann frazier -----
Package : linux-2.6
Vulnerability : several
Problem-Type : local

CVE-2006-5755

The NT bit maybe leaked into the next task which can local attackers
to cause a Denial of Service (crash) on systems which run the 'amd64'
flavour kernel. The stable distribution ('etch') was not believed to
be vulnerable to this issue at the time of release, however Bastian
Blank discovered that this issue still applied to the 'xen-amd64' and
'xen-vserver-amd64' flavours, and is resolved by this DSA.
----- End forwarded message -----

What do they mean by an "NT" bit? I'm assuming (hoping?) that they
don't mean a piece of Windows-NT...

Just curious.

Why is it that there always seem to be another vulnerability found in
the Linux kernel requiring another long download (I'm still on dialup),
when the BSD kernels (which support most, if not all, of the same
hardware) don't?

Doug.

--