1.9. automake

Updated automake, automake14, automake15, automake16, and automake17 packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having low security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in the References section.

Automake is a tool for automatically generating Makefile.in files compliant with the GNU Coding Standards.

Automake-generated Makefiles made certain directories world-writable when preparing source archives, as was recommended by the GNU Coding Standards. If a malicious, local user could access the directory where a victim was creating distribution archives, they could use this flaw to modify the files being added to those archives. Makefiles generated by these updated automake packages no longer make distribution directories world-writable, as recommended by the updated GNU Coding Standards. (CVE-2009-4029)

Note: This issue affected Makefile targets used by developers to prepare distribution source archives. Those targets are not used when compiling programs from the source code.

All users of automake, automake14, automake15, automake16, and automake17 should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve this issue.