RHBA-2008:0360 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated yum-rhn-plugin package that fixes several bugs is now available.

Description

The yum-rhn-plugin provides support for yum to access a Red Hat Network
(RHN) server for software updates.

This updated package fixes the following bugs:

• running yum commands as a non-root user blocked access to regular

functions, such as "yum list", when repositories on an RHN channel were
being used. As well, a "This system is not registered with RHN." message
appeared, even when the system was registered with RHN. In this updated
package, running yum commands as a non-root user no longer blocks regular
functions.

• when an RHN server could not be reached, the "yum clean all" command

successfully ran, but a "There was an error communicating with RHN. RHN
support will be disabled." error occurred.

• opening too many connections to an RHN server, such as scripts containing

multiple "yum list" commands, caused yum-rhn-plugin to be locked out from
the RHN server. An "Abuse of Service detected for server [server-name]"
error occurred. In this updated package, a client-side cache of "loginInfo"
has been added to "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2dateAuth.py", which
resolves this issue.

• snapshot rollbacks did not work. Errors such as "May free Score

board((nil))" and "Transaction Check Error" occurred when performing a
snapshot rollback.

• when using a proxy server, adding the "useNoSSLForPackages=1" option to

"/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date" caused a traceback, and a
"M2Crypto.SSL.SSLError: unknown protocol" error, when running "yum update".
Now, the "useNoSSLForPackages=1" option is no longer ignored, which
resolves this issue.

• yum-rhn-plugin did not work with yum 3.2.5 and 3.2.6. Running yum

commands may have caused an "Error 405: Method Not Allowed" error.

• a possible race condition could prevent an RHN Satellite server from

pushing scheduled actions. In this updated package, a timeout has been
added to "rhn_check", which resolves this issue.

• in certain situations, yum-rhn-plugin could cause an "error getting

update info: local variable 'result' referenced before assignment" error,
or a traceback. In this updated package, local variables are no longer
referenced before being assigned, which resolves this issue.

• using "https" URLs for the "serverURL" option in

"/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date" may have caused connection problems. In this
updated package, yum-rhn-plugin bypasses the "serverURL" certificate common
name check, so that the previous behavior is retained, which resolves this
issue.

• yum-rhn-plugin did not automatically import keys when deploying

configurations through activation keys. Deploying configurations through
activation keys failed with an error, such as 'Error while executing
packages action: Refusing to automatically import keys when running
unattended. Use "-y" to override'. Now, the Red Hat GPG key is
automatically imported.

• pirut failed with a traceback when RHN repositories were disabled. In

this updated package, pirut proceeds without a traceback when RHN
repositories are disabled.

• when running "yum check-update", and RHN could not be contacted, the

error message suggested running the "up2date --register" command. Now, for
these situations, only the "rhn_register" command is suggested.

Users of yum-rhn-plugin are advised to upgrade to this updated package,
which resolves these issues.

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 - 222327 - Yum Permissions issue
• BZ - 245013 - RHN locks out after a series of lists
• BZ - 248385 - snapshot rollbacks not working as designed in production w/ yum-rhn-plugin-0.4.3-2.el5
• BZ - 324141 - yum-rhn-plugin doesn't work with yum 3.2.5 and 3.2.6
• BZ - 331001 - osad stops working if rhn_check blocks forever
• BZ - 378911 - yum-updatesd: local variable 'result' referenced before assignment
• BZ - 438175 - Error message suggests to use up2date --register on RHEL 5

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)