RHBA-2014:1214 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated ksh packages that fix two bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 5.

Description

KornShell (KSH) is a Unix shell developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories, which is
backward-compatible with the Bourne shell (Bash) and includes many features of
the C shell. The most recent version is KSH-93. KornShell complies with the
POSIX.2 standard (IEEE Std 1003.2-1992).

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, the ksh shell forking during variable assignment failed to close

the file descriptors in the child process prior to execution. This could lead to
a file descriptor leak, and certain applications could consequently report error
messages. With this update, file descriptors are marked to be closed on
execution if appropriate, so file descriptor leaks no longer occur. (BZ#1058563)

• Previously, the brace expansion, a mechanism by which arbitrary strings may be

generated, could not be disabled using the "set +B" command. The underlying
source code has been fixed, and now it is possible to disable brace expansion
when needed. (BZ#1079947)

Users of ksh 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 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

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)