RHBA-2012:0409 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated xinetd package that fixes multiple bugs is now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The xinetd daemon is a secure replacement for xinetd, the Internet services
daemon. The xinetd daemon provides access control for all services based on the
address of the remote host, on time of access, or both, and can prevent denial
of service (DoS) attacks.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Under certain circumstances, the xinetd daemon could become unresponsive (for

example, when trying to acquire an already acquired lock for writing to its log
file) when an unexpected signal arrived. With this update, the daemon handles
unexpected signals correctly and no longer hangs under these circumstances.
(BZ#694820)

• Previously, a bug in the xinetd code could cause corruption of the time_t

variable resulting in the following compiler warning:

warning: dereferencing type-punned pointer will break strict-aliasing rules

A patch has been applied to address this issue, so that the warning no longer
occurs. (BZ#697783)

• Previously, the xinetd daemon ignored the "port" line of the service

configuration file, and it was therefore impossible to bind certain RPC services
to a specific port. The underlying source code has been modified to ensure that
xinetd honors the "port" line, so that the port numbers are now handled
appropriately. (BZ#697788)

• Incorrect use of the realloc() function could cause memory corruption. This

resulted in the xinetd daemon terminating unexpectedly right after the start
when a large number of services had been configured. The realloc() function has
been removed, which ensures that memory corruption no longer occurs in this
scenario, and the xinetd daemon starts successfully even when configuring a
large number of services. (BZ#711787)

All users of xinetd are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes
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 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 - 694820 - xinetd can hang while processing unknown signal
• BZ - 697783 - warning: dereferencing type-punned pointer will break strict-aliasing rules
• BZ - 697788 - bind rpc service to specific port
• BZ - 715303 - Defects revealed by coverity scan

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)