RHBA-2005:510 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated SysVinit package that fixes various bugs is now available.

Description

The SysVinit package contains a group of processes that control the basic
functions of your system. SysVinit includes the init program, which is the
first program started by the Linux kernel when the system boots. Init then
controls the startup and shutdown of all other programs.

The following issues have been addressed:

The init utility was accidentally overflowing argv[0]. This led to
overwriting parts of environment variables passed from the kernel.

The 'pidof -x' command did not work correctly when identifying commands
that used script interpreters, such as python.

The pidof utility would attempt to call stat on /proc/<pid>/exe,
which would hang on a stuck NFS server, causing a hang on shutdown.

All users of SysVinit should upgrade to this updated package, which
resolves these issues.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. To use Red Hat Network,
launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:

up2date

This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate
RPMs being upgraded on your system.

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 3 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 138788 - [PATCH] pidof bug renders machine unbootable when NFS is stuck
• BZ - 150082 - environment of init process mangled ?
• BZ - 162068 - pidof: -x does not work as expected

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)