RHBA-2009:0241 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated nss_ldap packages that resolve several issues are now available.

Description

The nss_ldap package contains the nss_ldap and pam_ldap modules. The
nss_ldap module allows applications to use a directory server as a primary
source for information about users and groups. The pam_ldap module allows
PAM-aware applications to use a directory server to verify user passwords.

These updated nss_ldap packages provide fixes for the following bugs:

• by default, the nss_ldap module keeps connections to a server open

between uses. In order to avoid problems that would occur if two client
processes attempted to issue queries over the same connection to a server,
the module installs a fork handler to allow it to close the client-side of
any open connection for a newly-created child process. This method
frequently caused a SIGPIPE signal to be received by the child process,
which, in many cases, caused the child process to exit. This issue may have
caused broken pipe errors, cron jobs not to run, remote session hangs,
scripts not running as expected and commands such as "su" to fail. These
updated packages contain a backported fix which causes the nss_ldap module
to ignore the SIGPIPE signal during the fork() call, thus resolving the
problem.

• when an application called one of the setnetgrent(), getnetgrent() or

endnetgrent() functions to begin enumerating the members of a netgroup, the
nss_ldap module returned a successful exit status, even if there was no
such netgroup. In these updated packages, the functions which enumerate the
members of a netgroup all return an return an exit status of NSS_NOTFOUND
when no such netgroup exists, thus resolving the issue.

All users of nss_ldap are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which resolve 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 - 448014 - bash command substitution broken with LDAP users
• BZ - 455285 - need to build pam_ldap with -fno-strict-aliasing
• BZ - 466526 - If GDM cannot contact an LDAP server as per system-config-authentication, it takes _FOREVER_ to give you the login screen

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)