Synopsis

cronie bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated cronie packages that fix several bugs and add two enhancements are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

Cronie contains the standard UNIX daemon crond that runs specified programs at
scheduled times and related tools. It is a fork of the original vixie-cron and
has security and configuration enhancements like the ability to use pam and
SELinux.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, the crond deamon did not drop data about user privileges before
  calling the popen() system function. Consequently, warnings about changing
  privileges were written to the /var/log/crond file when the function was invoked
  by the non-root user. With this update, crond has been modified to drop user
  privileges before calling popen(). As a result, warnings are no longer logged in
  this scenario. (BZ#697485)
  
• With this update, file permissions of cron configuration files have been
  changed to be readable only by the root user. (BZ#706979)
  
• Prior to this update, the definition of restart in the cron init file was
  incorrect. Consequently, a failure was incorrectly reported when restarting the
  crond daemon. The init file has been fixed and the redundant failure message is
  no longer displayed after crond restart. (BZ#733697)
  
• Cron jobs of users with home directories mounted on a Lightweight Directory
  Access Protocol (LDAP) server or Network File System (NFS) were often refused
  because jobs were marked as orphaned (typically due to a temporary NSS lookup
  failure, when NIS and LDAP servers were unreachable). With this update, a
  database of orphans is created, and cron jobs are performed as expected.
  (BZ#738232)
  
• With this update, obsolete comments have been removed from the
  /etc/cron.hourly/0anacron configuration file. (BZ#743473)
  
• Due to a bug in cron's support for time zones, planned jobs were executed
  multiple times. Effects of this bug were visible only during the spring change
  of time. This bug has been fixed and jobs are now executed correctly during the
  time change. (BZ#821046, BZ#995089)
  
• With this update, an incorrect example showing the anacron table setup has
  been fixed in the anacrontab man page. (BZ#887859)
  
• Previously, the crond daemon did not check for existing locks for daemon.
  Consequently, multiple instances of crond could run simultaneously. The locking
  mechanism has been updated and running multiple instances of cron at once is no
  longer possible. (BZ#919440)
  
• Prior to this update, the $LANG setting was not read by the crond daemon.
  Consequently, cron jobs were not run with the system-wide $LANG setting. This
  bug has been fixed and $LANG is now used by cron jobs as expected. (BZ#985888)
  
• Previously, the crond daemon used the putenv system call, which could have
  caused crond to terminate unexpectedly with a segmentation fault. With this
  update, putenv() has been replaced with the setenv() system call, thus
  preventing the segmentation fault. (BZ#985893)
  
• Prior to this update, the PATH variable could be set by cron or in crontable,
  but could not be changed by a PAM setting. With this update, PATH can be altered
  by PAM setting. As a result, PATH can now be inherited from the environment if
  the "-P" option is used. (BZ#990710)
  
• Previously, an incorrect error code was returned when non-root user tried to
  restart the crond daemon. With this update, a correct code is returned in the
  described case. (BZ#1006869)
  

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• This update adds the RANDOM_DELAY variable that allows delaying job startups
  by random amount of minutes with upper limit specified by the variable. The
  random scaling factor is determined during the crond daemon startup so it
  remains constant for the whole run time of the daemon. (BZ#829910)
  
• With this update, the CRON_CORRECT_MAIL_HEADER environment variable in the
  /etc/crond/sysconfig configuration file has been updated. With this variable
  enabled, cron now sends emails with headers in RFC compliant format. (BZ#922829)
  

Users of cronie are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix
these bugs and add these enhancements.

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 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 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

Fixes

• BZ - 697485 - cronie doesn't drop privileges before popen
• BZ - 706979 - config file permissions are world readable
• BZ - 733697 - Service restart needlessly reports failure
• BZ - 743473 - Confusing comments in /etc/cron.hourly/0anacron
• BZ - 887859 - Incorrect example in anacrontab manpage
• BZ - 919440 - cronie: prevent new crond process when already running
• BZ - 985888 - cronie drops $LANG and never passes it on to jobs run
• BZ - 985893 - do not use putenv
• BZ - 1006869 - init script: service restart under the nonroot changed behaviour, it returns 1 instead of 4

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6

SRPM
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: a35a24feffaec3dfb47ef7f847cc881d1a5d797c0e78550f139bc44f84b46dd2
x86_64
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 617ead81eb3c340c02312525aee81a0dd987bd5ac4866f95b8aa45c606078e93
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 31a389510f119ad8d734d4ddbd2f8f386af0c59ff45068b48b43972e88edfdc2
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 15dd7d99e0c911a144efe01166b2973421f1b0ea736a547ea88085e814603259
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 98bba4fc4c0db5094e06a3dc53a38009254fff634bfc6911b8df63a4ef03162c
i386
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: b49da6d3e2d1b8eb4c9e34ac68c41dbf3757ff3e00245d7d56d1b46ef5c2d6ae
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 965ac17f445fd67bf62570bb7600d744568b901b697fe6d51e9f0c6d4ef0800e
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 3068ae542e8b71becf039cd99f3f5b9def5947a204f77168869ca29472d0047a
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c4ed72cd0771fdfd7cc92b00300f3ee49b7576deeda723f242343d00fa1f8160

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6

SRPM
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: a35a24feffaec3dfb47ef7f847cc881d1a5d797c0e78550f139bc44f84b46dd2
x86_64
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 617ead81eb3c340c02312525aee81a0dd987bd5ac4866f95b8aa45c606078e93
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 31a389510f119ad8d734d4ddbd2f8f386af0c59ff45068b48b43972e88edfdc2
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 15dd7d99e0c911a144efe01166b2973421f1b0ea736a547ea88085e814603259
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 98bba4fc4c0db5094e06a3dc53a38009254fff634bfc6911b8df63a4ef03162c
i386
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: b49da6d3e2d1b8eb4c9e34ac68c41dbf3757ff3e00245d7d56d1b46ef5c2d6ae
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 965ac17f445fd67bf62570bb7600d744568b901b697fe6d51e9f0c6d4ef0800e
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 3068ae542e8b71becf039cd99f3f5b9def5947a204f77168869ca29472d0047a
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c4ed72cd0771fdfd7cc92b00300f3ee49b7576deeda723f242343d00fa1f8160

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6

SRPM
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: a35a24feffaec3dfb47ef7f847cc881d1a5d797c0e78550f139bc44f84b46dd2
x86_64
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 617ead81eb3c340c02312525aee81a0dd987bd5ac4866f95b8aa45c606078e93
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 31a389510f119ad8d734d4ddbd2f8f386af0c59ff45068b48b43972e88edfdc2
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 15dd7d99e0c911a144efe01166b2973421f1b0ea736a547ea88085e814603259
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 98bba4fc4c0db5094e06a3dc53a38009254fff634bfc6911b8df63a4ef03162c
i386
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: b49da6d3e2d1b8eb4c9e34ac68c41dbf3757ff3e00245d7d56d1b46ef5c2d6ae
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 965ac17f445fd67bf62570bb7600d744568b901b697fe6d51e9f0c6d4ef0800e
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 3068ae542e8b71becf039cd99f3f5b9def5947a204f77168869ca29472d0047a
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c4ed72cd0771fdfd7cc92b00300f3ee49b7576deeda723f242343d00fa1f8160

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6

SRPM
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: a35a24feffaec3dfb47ef7f847cc881d1a5d797c0e78550f139bc44f84b46dd2
s390x
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: 2fc42fb74ba78c94c4862334a9f658ae6aa133bfc3aa09b2c69ec8958b7c729c
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: bb7d9afb01793ab30566e98a9fa60bac7011a70a5c74d783f6ac9011f7f0dc55
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: 0c4b45caca4784e3bacd5c51b985f44cded3095f5ea55ed3de2071bf4b16bb22
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: d5967979047051af1666cf76e4acc86858aad8a48fab6aa63354af2ba63a6861

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6

SRPM
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: a35a24feffaec3dfb47ef7f847cc881d1a5d797c0e78550f139bc44f84b46dd2
ppc64
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.ppc64.rpm	SHA-256: fd5743bbc3e482d157aa7fc034ae7b78a50c521053abd35e82f42a07f945289e
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.ppc64.rpm	SHA-256: d0be57778eeeea5a93131f5d377d0deb91b6f2d465025ff93e8327589f9effa4
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.ppc64.rpm	SHA-256: 8e083270f074d566e71623019eab5a374c1cc97e1bd67d00d838ea9d09a174a9
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.ppc64.rpm	SHA-256: 40604f295cdfe35f9b410d337495b5e0fa4350a8b43a0ce5b19627d732bdb92e

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6

SRPM
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: a35a24feffaec3dfb47ef7f847cc881d1a5d797c0e78550f139bc44f84b46dd2
x86_64
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 617ead81eb3c340c02312525aee81a0dd987bd5ac4866f95b8aa45c606078e93
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 31a389510f119ad8d734d4ddbd2f8f386af0c59ff45068b48b43972e88edfdc2
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 15dd7d99e0c911a144efe01166b2973421f1b0ea736a547ea88085e814603259
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 98bba4fc4c0db5094e06a3dc53a38009254fff634bfc6911b8df63a4ef03162c

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6

SRPM
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.src.rpm	SHA-256: a35a24feffaec3dfb47ef7f847cc881d1a5d797c0e78550f139bc44f84b46dd2
x86_64
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 617ead81eb3c340c02312525aee81a0dd987bd5ac4866f95b8aa45c606078e93
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 31a389510f119ad8d734d4ddbd2f8f386af0c59ff45068b48b43972e88edfdc2
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 15dd7d99e0c911a144efe01166b2973421f1b0ea736a547ea88085e814603259
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 98bba4fc4c0db5094e06a3dc53a38009254fff634bfc6911b8df63a4ef03162c
i386
cronie-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: b49da6d3e2d1b8eb4c9e34ac68c41dbf3757ff3e00245d7d56d1b46ef5c2d6ae
cronie-anacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 965ac17f445fd67bf62570bb7600d744568b901b697fe6d51e9f0c6d4ef0800e
cronie-debuginfo-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: 3068ae542e8b71becf039cd99f3f5b9def5947a204f77168869ca29472d0047a
cronie-noanacron-1.4.4-12.el6.i686.rpm	SHA-256: c4ed72cd0771fdfd7cc92b00300f3ee49b7576deeda723f242343d00fa1f8160