RHBA-2011:0706 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated httpd packages that fix multiple bugs are now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The Apache HTTP Server is a popular web server.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Due to a bug in the filter initialization process, filters configured using

the mod_filter module were not handled correctly if a "sub-request" took place.
For example, using the "FilterChain" directive to configure the "DEFLATE"
compression filter with a Server-Side-Include page could result in pages which
were only partially compressed. With this update, filters used with mod_filter
operate correctly. (BZ#631849)

• If arguments passed to the ab benchmarking program triggered a memory

allocation failure, ab could terminate unexpectedly with a segmentation fault.
With this update, the memory allocation failure is now trapped earlier, and the
program exits gracefully with an error message. (BZ#645846)

• When executing the "service httpd stop" command, a 10-seconds timeout is used

before terminating the httpd parent process in case of error. If this timeout
was insufficient, resources did not allow the parent process to terminate
cleanly and could be leaked. This update introduces the "STOP_TIMEOUT"
environment variable, which can be used in the /etc/sysconfig/httpd
configuration file to change the timeout. This can be used to allow a longer
delay and fix resource leaks if the httpd parent is slow to terminate.
(BZ#657480)

• When configuring the httpd service, using a mod_ldap directive in the

"VirtualHost" container caused the HTTP server to stop caching requests to a
directory server. This update applies a patch that corrects this error, and the
use of mod_ldap directives in the "VirtualHost" context no longer prevents the
httpd service from caching LDAP requests. (BZ#676635)

• Prior to this update, an attempt to use configuration with multiple virtual

hosts sharing the same ID and private key file could prevent the httpd service
from starting with an error message written to the error_log file. With this
update, the underlying source code has been modified to address this issue, and
the httpd service now starts as expected. (BZ#676831)

• When using the prefork Multi-Processing Module (MPM), children processes with

persistent connections (that is, with the "KeepAlive" directive set to "On")
kept processing new requests even when a graceful restart had been issued. This
update applies a patch that corrects this error, and children processes with the
persistent connections no longer process new requests when a graceful restart is
requested. (BZ#679476)

• Previously, an attempt to start the httpd service with the mod_ssl module in

FIPS mode failed. With this update, an upstream patch has been applied to
implement support for the FIPS mode in the mod_ssl module, and httpd no longer
fails to start. (BZ#684144)

All users of httpd are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix
these bugs.

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
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 Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• 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 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 - 645846 - ab -n overflows
• BZ - 652335 - mod_ssl possible memory corruption
• BZ - 657480 - [RFE] Some semaphores are not cleaned during httpd shutdown
• BZ - 676635 - mod_ldap stops caching with per-vhost directive use
• BZ - 676831 - mod_ssl: startup fails with duplicate SSL vhost configurations
• BZ - 679476 - prefork children in keepalive do not exit on graceful

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)