RHBA-2005:526 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated pam packages that resolve bugs in the PAM library and add support for
auditing and unlimited values for system limits are now available.

Description

PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is a system security library that
allows system administrators to set authentication policies without having
to recompile programs that handle authentication.

Expect scripting language is a tool primarily used for automating
interactive applications such as telnet, ftp, passwd, fsck, rlogin, tip,
etc. Applications such as passwd which use the conversation function
provided by PAM may work incorrectly when invoked from expect scripts.

On systems that have groups with very large memberships, some PAM
modules might fail incorrectly.

The updated packages also add support for auditing PAM calls using the
auditing service and support for setting unlimited values for system limits
in the /etc/security/limits.conf file.

All users of PAM should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve
these issues.

Solution

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

To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run:

rpm -Fvh [filenames]

where [filenames] is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those
RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are
not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you
can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directory *only* contains the
desired RPMs.

Please note that this update is also available via Red Hat Network. Many
people find this an easier way to apply updates. 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.

If up2date fails to connect to Red Hat Network due to SSL
Certificate Errors, you need to install a version of the
up2date client with an updated certificate. The latest version of
up2date is available from the Red Hat FTP site and may also be
downloaded directly from the RHN website:

https://rhn.redhat.com/help/latest-up2date.pxt

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 158097 - pam audit updates for U2
• BZ - 158272 - Expect/passwd timing problem

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)