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Greetings, 
	
At Rackspace security is of the utmost importance, and that is why we will be performing proactive security maintenance on all servers which have RHEL 6.1 - 6.4 installed with a kernel version that is not at least the following:

RHEL 6.1 - 2.6.32-131.39.1.el6.x86_64
RHEL 6.2 - 2.6.32-220.38.1.el6.x86_64
RHEL 6.3 - 2.6.32-279.25.2.el6.x86_64
RHEL 6.4 - 2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.x86_64

The reason for this upgrade is a security vulnerability in RHEL6 in which the perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9 uses an incorrect integer data type, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted perf_event_open system call.  You can also view the CVE related to this vulnerability here:

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2013-2094

This maintenance will involve updating the system kernel and performing a scheduled reboot. The expected downtime for this maintenance is the time it takes a server to reboot which is anywhere from five to fifteen minutes depending on installed hardware and configuration. 

The new kernel has already been installed on your server but a reboot is required to complete the maintenance.  A reboot via an ‘at’ job is scheduled for your server(s) seven days from today on June 27th @ 12:00 midnight server time unless we hear from you to make alternate arrangements.

As with any maintenance there is always a risk of extended downtime so you may request to have a specifically scheduled maintenance time for your upgrade. To schedule a maintenance manually please contact your Dedicated Account Manager. A root level compromise can be costly and disruptive to your business, so we advocate resolving this issue as quickly as possible. 

Of course, your support team is also here to go through this process with you should you want to complete it yourself but require some help at any stage of the upgrade.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Your Rackspace Hosting Support Team