Synopsis

perl bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated perl packages that fix several bugs are now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

Perl is a high-level programming language commonly used for system
administration utilities and web programming.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Due to an error in the threads module, memory was leaked each time a thread
  was detached. Over time, this could cause long-running threaded Perl programs to
  consume a significant amount of memory. With this update, a patch has been
  applied to ensure the allocated memory is properly freed when a thread is
  detached, and using threads in Perl applications no longer causes memory leaks.
  (BZ#548249)
  
• If the "-default" parameter contained a plus sign ("+"), the CGI::popup_menu()
  method failed to generate valid HTML code and the closing tag of a paired tag
  was sometimes missing. The regular expression that contributes the HTML code in
  such scenarios has been fixed and the closing tag is now always present.
  (BZ#523827)
  
• Previously, joining or undefining a thread variable in a Perl script resulted
  in the following error message: "Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV
  0x7b7dcb0, Perl interpreter: 0x7b4cfb0 during global destruction." A backported
  upstream patch has been provided and the internal error is no longer returned in
  the described scenario. (BZ#537777)
  
• Previously, the CGI::popup_menu() method generated invalid HTML code; a space
  character was sometimes missing between two attributes of a tag. With this
  update, the regular expression responsible for generating such code has been
  fixed and the space characters are now properly generated in the described
  scenario. (BZ#590644)
  
• When threads were being rapidly created and detached on a multi-processor
  system with Perl, a variety of unexpected terminations occurred as a result.
  With this update, the threads module has been updated to version 1.79 and the
  crashes no longer occur. (BZ#675863)
  
• Previously, the NDBM_File module was missing in Perl packages and Perl could
  not provide support for NDBM files. With this update, NDBM_File has been added
  back to the Perl RPM packages. (BZ#593752)
  
• Previously, string evaluation in Perl threads sometimes resulted in an
  unexpected termination of the process. To partially fix this bug, handling of
  these strings has been moved to non-threaded variables. The update of the
  threads module to version 1.79 also contributed to the fix of this bug. Now, the
  crashes no longer occur in the described scenario. (BZ#676050)
  
• Due to a missing definition in Unicode table 4.0, Perl did not recognize the
  small letter Palochka (U+04cf). With this update, the Unicode table has been
  updated to version 5.0.1 and Palochka letters are now supported in Perl.
  (BZ#621542)
  
• When two nested loops were using the same iterator, the interpreter tried to
  double-free the iterator, resulting in a warning. Moreover, referring such an
  iterator caused the "Attempt to free unreferenced scalar" run-time error message
  to be returned. A backported patch from Perl 5.10.1 has been applied to handle
  shared iterators properly and no warnings or error messages are now returned in
  the described scenario. (BZ#625746)
  
• Previously, the value of a variable used for string evaluation was too small.
  Consequently, a large number of string evaluations made the interpreter return
  syntax error messages. Now, the variable for storing strings is using a bigger
  value and the error messages are no longer returned in the described scenario.
  (BZ#676547)
  

Users of perl are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these
bugs.

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 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 - 523827 - CGI.pm popup_menu if optgroup, $selected is not properly escaped.
• BZ - 537777 - 'Attempt to free unreferenced scalar' when running a perl program with threads
• BZ - 548249 - Perl threads leak memory when detached
• BZ - 590644 - CGI.pm popup_menu produces invalid HTML
• BZ - 621542 - perl does not recognize small letter palochka
• BZ - 625746 - Perl gives the error 'Attempt to free unreferenced scalar' with nested foreach loops using the same variable
• BZ - 675863 - memory corruption with perl threads
• BZ - 676050 - perl threads crash on string evals
• BZ - 676547 - Large number of string evals makes interpreter emit syntax error [perl #83364]

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5

SRPM
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: f0746c52aad3b58b12c07909bce8406d7056a587adeab28cb105bcd2f5bf1d74
x86_64
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 315902d05f376e9fec048fdf5cc3197e2af72ff0e7b08afb45698059603d5a79
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a72ecf081d3cac664c22814592bd4b2f9ad13f8c3d7b334407d3f2372a8b07f6
ia64
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: 15eb28fccd384cf6bce3baed6804caa6546909fc7c05b7423be8b788de60b15b
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: f1595738c164b39f7b72a5ce4baa37fd6111a2d707b6825f6d5a96d5cb7e0bc6
i386
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: cc87a24ff5097e0f3b05cd5c6c319a8e33f2b39eb77a37f390c06f677b803617
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 25ac0a63729b8a092a4b68a8b1a966693273a7b1c8a529daeed39807faadd8e5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5

SRPM
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: f0746c52aad3b58b12c07909bce8406d7056a587adeab28cb105bcd2f5bf1d74
x86_64
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: cc87a24ff5097e0f3b05cd5c6c319a8e33f2b39eb77a37f390c06f677b803617
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 315902d05f376e9fec048fdf5cc3197e2af72ff0e7b08afb45698059603d5a79
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a72ecf081d3cac664c22814592bd4b2f9ad13f8c3d7b334407d3f2372a8b07f6
i386
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: cc87a24ff5097e0f3b05cd5c6c319a8e33f2b39eb77a37f390c06f677b803617
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 25ac0a63729b8a092a4b68a8b1a966693273a7b1c8a529daeed39807faadd8e5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5

SRPM
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: f0746c52aad3b58b12c07909bce8406d7056a587adeab28cb105bcd2f5bf1d74
x86_64
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: cc87a24ff5097e0f3b05cd5c6c319a8e33f2b39eb77a37f390c06f677b803617
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 315902d05f376e9fec048fdf5cc3197e2af72ff0e7b08afb45698059603d5a79
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a72ecf081d3cac664c22814592bd4b2f9ad13f8c3d7b334407d3f2372a8b07f6
i386
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: cc87a24ff5097e0f3b05cd5c6c319a8e33f2b39eb77a37f390c06f677b803617
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 25ac0a63729b8a092a4b68a8b1a966693273a7b1c8a529daeed39807faadd8e5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5

SRPM
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: f0746c52aad3b58b12c07909bce8406d7056a587adeab28cb105bcd2f5bf1d74
s390x
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: 740a1ef7ca61e9db4b51ca1e8bd1afc0fd819b09333f77699da5c5fde0bec0d7
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: 2663a8e6f086f54906d666b8f08d0f735b134e427fa844cdfb652ae6cf85acb0

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5

SRPM
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: f0746c52aad3b58b12c07909bce8406d7056a587adeab28cb105bcd2f5bf1d74
ppc
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.ppc.rpm	SHA-256: 7ce397d1e9cdf4017f0328f3d08bdc047d363f58137a6f159db6ddc43a235bce
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.ppc.rpm	SHA-256: fba303e15a1877e2529ae660c6ab0ce3113351d7e8f77029c731e87be7b9cfed

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5

SRPM
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: f0746c52aad3b58b12c07909bce8406d7056a587adeab28cb105bcd2f5bf1d74
x86_64
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 315902d05f376e9fec048fdf5cc3197e2af72ff0e7b08afb45698059603d5a79
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a72ecf081d3cac664c22814592bd4b2f9ad13f8c3d7b334407d3f2372a8b07f6
i386
perl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: cc87a24ff5097e0f3b05cd5c6c319a8e33f2b39eb77a37f390c06f677b803617
perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 25ac0a63729b8a092a4b68a8b1a966693273a7b1c8a529daeed39807faadd8e5