RHBA-2008:0325 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated shadow-utils package that fix various bugs and adds an
enhancement is now available.

Description

The shadow-utils package includes the necessary programs for converting
UNIX password files to the shadow password format, as well as tools for
managing user and group accounts.

The updated shadow-utils package fixes the following bugs:

• shadow-utils is now configured to use MD5 encryption by default.
• the "--append" command line option would output usage details instead of

correctly appending the new group to the user.

• a mailbox is now created in /var/spool/mail when a regular account is

created.

• functions for adding or deleting users would not work correctly on LDAP

clients. The command would hang and eventually timeout. These functions
have been improved, however, they may still take up to 30 seconds.

• userdel and usermod commands could enter an infinite loop when there were

duplicate names in the /etc/group or /etc/gshadow files.

• the useradd and chpasswd commands would cause chpasswd to terminate with

a buffer overflow when used together. These commands now work as expected.

The updated shadow-utils package adds the following enhancement:

• users can now use SHA-256 and SHA-512 hashes for generating more secure

passwords.

All shadow-utils users should upgrade to these updated packages, which
resolves the bugs and adds the enhancement.

Solution

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

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 218629 - shadow-utils does not use MD5 encryption by default.
• BZ - 241585 - [RHEL5] userdel/usermod infinite loop with duplicate names in /etc/group or /etc/gshadow
• BZ - 247514 - chpasswd buffer overflow

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)