RHBA-2011:0578 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated elfutils packages that resolve an issue are now available.

Description

The elfutils package contains utilities and libraries for working with compiled
binary files. Its libraries are used by the SystemTap instrumentation system
found in the systemtap package.

These updated elfutils packages fix the following bug:

• After prelink had been run on the system, using SystemTap user-space probes

that targeted functions or statements in certain shared libraries, or
executables based on a separate debuginfo file, caused resolution to the wrong
PC location in a linked binary. As a result, the intended probes failed to fire
at the correct place in the program, which could have caused the program to
crash or misbehave due to a corrupted instruction sequence resulting from
incorrect breakpoint insertions. With this update, the libdwfl library code (the
libdw.so shared object library) was adjusted to use a more reliable method of
compensating for prelink's effect on the address layout of a binary when
aligning a runtime PC address with an address computed separately from the
separated debuginfo file. SystemTap probes should now work the same on prelinked
binaries as they would on binaries that have not been prelinked. (BZ#652858)

All users of SystemTap and elfutils 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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259/

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 652858 - misaddresed user-space probes on prelinked shared libraries on i686 (REL)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)