RHBA-2011:1589 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated python-dmidecode package that fixes various bugs is now available for
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The python-dmidecode package provides a python extension module that uses the
code-base of the dmidecode utility and presents the data as python data
structures or as XML data using the libxml2 library.

The python-dmidecode package has been upgraded to upstream version 3.10.13,
which provides a number of bug fixes over the previous version. (BZ#621567)

This updated python-dmidecode package includes fixes for the following bugs:

• When trying to identify the processor type by performing a string comparison,

Python terminated with a segmentation fault. This was caused by DMI tables which
did not report the CPU processor information as a string and returned a NULL
value instead. This update adds additional checks for NULL values before doing
the string comparison. (BZ#627901)

• Previously, when calling the memcpy() function on the IBM System z machine

which was under heavy memory load, a SIGILL signal was triggered. As a
consequence, the complete Python interpreter core dumped. A signal handler was
added to properly handle heavy memory loads. (BZ#646429)

• Prior to this update, when running the rhn_register utility, providing a valid

user name and password, and clicking the Forward button, the tool terminated
unexpectedly with a segmentation fault. This was caused by the
dmi_processor_id() function not checking whether the version pointer was NULL.
This update adds additional checks for NULL values, fixing the problem.
(BZ#667363)

All users of python-dmidecode are advised to upgrade to this updated package,
which resolves 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 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 (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 - 621567 - Update to latest release to prevent regressions
• BZ - 627901 - Segfault when decoding DMI data in dmi_processor_id()
• BZ - 667363 - rhn-setup-1.0.0-38.el6: __strncmp_ssse3: Process /usr/bin/python was killed by signal 11 (SIGSEGV)

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)