RHBA-2012:1354 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated ftp packages that fix four bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 6.

Description

The ftp packages provide the standard UNIX command line File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) client. FTP is a widely used protocol for transferring files over the
Internet, and for archiving files.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, the command line width in the ftp client was limited to 200

characters. With this update, the maximum possible length of the FTP command
line is extended to 4296 characters. (BZ#665337)

• Prior to this update, "append", "put", and "send" commands were causing system

memory to leak. The memory holding the ftp command was not freed appropriately.
With this update, the underlying source code has been improved to correctly free
the system resources and the memory leaks are no longer present. (BZ#786004)

• Previously, the ftp client could not be invoked to run directly in the active

mode. This functionality has been added to the source code and documented in the
manual page. The client can now be executed with an additional "-A" command line
parameter and will run in the active mode. (BZ#849940)

• Previously, the ftp client hung up when the ftp-data port (20) was not

available (e.g. was blocked). The client then had to be terminated manually.
Additional logic has been added to the source code. With this update, ftp has an
internal timeout set to 30 seconds. If there is no answer from the server when
this time has passed, ftp will now gracefully time out and not hang up.
(BZ#852636)

All users of ftp 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/knowledge/articles/11258

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 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 (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 849940 - ftp client does not support active mode from command line invocation

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)