RHBA-2013:1306 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

Description

The binutils packages are a collection of programming tools for the manipulation
of object code in various object file formats.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Due to instability in calculating the program header size, the GNU linker

could terminate unexpectedly with a "looping in map_segments" error message.
With this update, the linker has been modified to properly handle changes in the
size of the segment map, which prevents the instability, and the linker no
longer crashes in this scenario. (BZ#817056)

• Previously, the PowerPC linker made assumptions about the order of

instructions and relocations. Those assumptions were not correct for code
compiled with GNU Compiler Collection version 4.1 (GCC-4.1). As a result, the
linker could trigger an internal error during optimization of TLS sequences.
Now, the linker code to optimize TLS has been modified to not attempt to
optimize TLS sequences which do not meet its assumptions about code and
relocation ordering. Therefore, the linker no longer triggers an internal error
when optimizing TLS sequences. (BZ#855163)

• The PowerPC linker did not verify whether certain pointers were validly

non-NULL prior to dereferencing those pointers. As a result, under certain
circumstances, the PowerPC linker could encounter a segmentation fault or a bus
error. With this update, the PowerPC linker code has been changed to properly
check for NULL pointers and take appropriate action, and links no longer
experience segmentation faults or bus errors. (BZ#924354)

Users of binutils 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/site/articles/11258

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 - 855163 - internal error, aborting at ../../bfd/elf64-ppc.c line 10584 in ppc64_elf_relocate_section
• BZ - 924354 - collect2: ld terminated with signal 11

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)