RHBA-2010:0096 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated openswan packages that fix an issue with NSS passwords being logged
at run time are now available.

Description

Openswan is a free implementation of Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) and
Internet Key Exchange (IKE) for Linux. IPsec uses strong cryptography to
provide both authentication and encryption services. These services allow
you to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks. Everything passing
through the untrusted net is encrypted by the IPsec gateway machine and
decrypted by the gateway at the other end of the tunnel. The resulting
tunnel is a virtual private network, or VPN.

These packages contain the daemons and userland tools for setting up
openswan. They support the NETKEY/XFRM IPsec stack in the default Linux
kernel. The openswan 2.6.x-series also supports IKEv2 as described in RFC
4309.

This update addresses the following issue:

• when an NSS database is created with a password (either in FIPS or

non-FIPS mode), access to a private key (associated with a certificate or a
raw public key) requires authentication. At authentication time, openswan
passes the database password to NSS. Previously, when this happened,
openswan also logged the password to /var/log/secure. The password could
also be seen by running "ipsec barf". With this update, openswan still
passes the database password at authentication time but no longer logs it
in any fashion. (BZ#557688)

All openswan users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
resolve this issue.

Solution

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

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-11259

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 for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 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 IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 557688 - Openswan (pluto) logs NSS password which should not happen

CVEs

(none)

References

• http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4309.txt