FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE Errata

1 Introduction

This errata document contains ``late-breaking news'' about FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE. Before installing this version, it is important to consult this document to learn about any post-release discoveries or problems that may already have been found and fixed.

Any version of this errata document actually distributed with the release (for example, on a CDROM distribution) will be out of date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be consulted as the ``current errata'' for this release. These other copies of the errata are located at http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/, plus any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this location.

Source and binary snapshots of FreeBSD 5-STABLE also contain up-to-date copies of this document (as of the time of the snapshot).

For a list of all FreeBSD CERT security advisories, see http://www.FreeBSD.org/security/ or ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/.

2 Security Advisories

The following security advisories pertain to FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE. For more information, consult the individual advisories available from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/.

3 Open Issues

No issues.

4 Late-Breaking News

(6 May 2005) An error in the default permissions on the /dev/iir device node, which allowed unprivileged local users to send commands to the hardware supported by the iir(4) driver. Although the error was fixed prior to 5.4-RELEASE, it was applied too late in the release cycle to be mentioned in the release notes. For more information, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-05:06.iir.

(6 May 2005) A bug in the validation of i386_get_ldt(2) system call input arguments, which may allow kernel memory may be disclosed to the user process, has been fixed. This bug was fixed prior to 5.4-RELEASE, although not in time to be mentioned in the release notes. For more information, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-05:07.ldt.

(6 May 2005) Several information disclosure vulnerabilities in various parts of the kernel have been fixed in 5.4-RELEASE, although too late to be mentioned in the release notes. For more information, see security advisory FreeBSD-SA-05:08.kmem.

(24 Jun 2005) The FreeBSD/sparc64 5.4-RELEASE should have stated that the FreeBSD/sparc64 GENERIC kernel prior to the upcoming 6.0-RELEASE officially only supports serial consoles. This is especially true for the FreeBSD/sparc64 5.4-RELEASE GENERIC kernel because the ofw_console(4) driver which also provides limited indirect support for graphical consoles has been replaced with the uart(4) driver in favor better serial support.

Due to this limitation to serial consoles the screen will stop working after the message ``jumping to kernel entry at...'' is displayed when trying to use the FreeBSD/sparc64 5.4-RELEASE GENERIC kernel with a graphical console, while FreeBSD itself continues working actually.

If you want to use FreeBSD/sparc64 with a graphical console anyway you can do one of the following:

• In case your machine is equipped with a Sun Creator, Sun Creator3D, or Sun Elite3D frame buffer card and a Sun RS232 keyboard you can install FreeBSD/sparc64 5.4-RELEASE with a serial console and afterwards compile a custom kernel with the following additional options:

  device          sc
  device          creator
  options         KBD_INSTALL_CDEV
  

  Additionally you have to enable the tty[1-7] entries in /etc/ttys like so:

  ttyv0   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  # Virtual terminals
  ttyv1   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  ttyv2   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  ttyv3   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  ttyv4   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  ttyv5   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  ttyv6   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  ttyv7   "/usr/libexec/getty Pc"         cons25  on  secure
  

  This will yield native support for these keyboards and frame buffers including VTY switching and X Window System. Note that this really requires at least FreeBSD/sparc64 5.4-RELEASE otherwise it will not work on most of the UltraSPARC models.

• In case your machine is equipped with a ATI Mach64 frame buffer (found on-board in e.g. Sun Blade 100/150 and Sun Ultra 5/10 as well as on Sun PGX8 and Sun PGX64 add-on cards) or a PS/2 or a USB keyboard update to a FreeBSD/sparc64 6.0 from June 10 2005 or later. If you use the stock GENERIC kernel and /etc/ttys from there no further action is required.

  This will yield native support for these keyboards and frame buffers including VTY switching and X Window System.

• In case your machine is equipped with hardware other than those mentioned above or you refuse to update to FreeBSD/sparc64 6.0 you can re-enable the ofw_console(4) driver as a last resort. To do so build a custom kernel with the following additional options:

  device          ofw_console
  device          sab
  device          zs
  

  and make sure to comment out the following kernel option:

  device          uart
  

  This will yield limited indirect support for any graphical console hardware, however with poor performance, and VTY switching as well as X Window System do not work with this. Note that ofw_console(4) is not really MPSAFE and therefore can result in panics under certain conditions.

For more details of how to recompile your kernel or update to FreeBSD 6.0, see Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel and The Cutting Edge sections in the FreeBSD Handbook, respectively.