RHBA-2014:1528 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated sos package that fixes several bugs and adds various enhancements is
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The sos package contains a set of utilities that gather information from system
hardware, logs, and configuration files. The information can then be used for
diagnostic purposes and debugging.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Depending on site-local configuration, large quantities of System Activity

Reporter (SAR) data could be present on systems. Previous versions of the sos
utility attempted to collect all data present, potentially leading to very large
report sizes and slow data collection. This update applies a size limit to both
binary and text data captured by the SAR module, and SAR data in the report are
now limited to 20 MB by default. In addition, a new "all_sar" option has been
added to the module to request the old behavior. (BZ#1001600)

• The sos utility makes use of the Red Hat Network Client Tools hardware module

to obtain information on the hardware present in the system. However, due to the
way in which the module was invoked by sos, a change in the Red Hat Network
component caused errors when running the sosreport command. The sos hardware
plug-in now imports the Red Hat Network module directly and stores the resulting
output in the report, thus fixing the bug. Now, exceptions or other errors are
no longer displayed during report processing. (BZ#1041770)

• Previous versions of the sos utility failed to correctly handle file system

exceptions resulting from out-of-space conditions. As a consequence, running the
sosreport utility with insufficient space could lead to thousands of logged
errors and creation of an unusable report tarball. With this update, all I/O
paths in sosreport correctly handle out-of-space and other fatal file system
exceptions. Now, attempting to run sos with insufficient space results in an
immediate descriptive error and the tool no longer attempts to create a report
archive. (BZ#1085042)

• Previous versions of the sos utility did not omit passwords or password

hashes in the grub.conf bootloader configuration file. Consequently, passwords
or password hashes contained in these files could be disclosed to the recipient
of an sos report archive. The sos utility now removes passwords and password
hashes from grub.conf, and the generated report archive no longer contains
password material. (BZ#1101311)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• With this update, the sos package includes support for the Samba Clustered

Trivial Database (CTDB), clustered implementation of the TDB used by Samba.
Users can now require information on the CTDB state and configuration to
diagnose problems in clustered Samba deployments. (BZ#961041)

• Depending on system configuration and fault state, some commands can become

blocked indefinitely causing the sos utility to appear unresponsive. With this
update, the sosreport utility applies a timeout when running all external
commands, so that commands that become blocked for an excessive period now
terminate with a timeout and no longer cause the main sos process to hang.
(BZ#1005703)

• Previous versions of the sos utility did not capture diagnostic data for

OpenShift Node and Broker installations. With this update, configuration and
state information is collected on applicable systems. (BZ#1039755)

• Previously, information related to failed upgrades was not collected by the

sosreport command. With this update, attempted upgrades leave diagnostic data in
the host file system that can assist in determining the cause of the upgrade
problem. (BZ#1052344)

Users of sos are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes these
bugs and adds 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/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 - 950409 - [RFE] enhance sos sar plugin to also capture XML from sadf -x
• BZ - 977190 - [RFE] sosreport does not include /proc/device-tree on powerpc systems
• BZ - 1001941 - sosreport should capture /etc/yaboot.conf as well as /boot/yaboot.conf
• BZ - 1002619 - Add syslogsize option and an appropriate default value to the sosreport gluster plugin
• BZ - 1005703 - [RFE] backport sos command timeout support from upstream
• BZ - 1012410 - Collect output of `ipa-replica-manage` in ipa module
• BZ - 1015783 - mysql plug-in is vulnerable to configurations that place large logs under /var/log/mysql
• BZ - 1019872 - [RHEL6] rpm plug-in default verify list verifies too much
• BZ - 1020445 - sosreport does not log plugin exceptions from postproc method
• BZ - 1022226 - sosreport man page is not consistent with help
• BZ - 1032706 - Use --input-logs when calling ausearch
• BZ - 1035774 - cluster module needs to pass --from to crm_report
• BZ - 1039755 - Port Openshift sosreport Plugin into Openshift
• BZ - 1061529 - addCopySpecLimit function doesn't consider file sizes in recursive subdirectories
• BZ - 1069786 - preserve permissions on directories collected via addCopySpec()
• BZ - 1079954 - Plugin networking hangs forever on /proc/net/rpc/use-gss-proxy read
• BZ - 1085042 - sosreport will fail with "no space left" error, but it appears to generate a valid sosreport anyway
• BZ - 1101311 - sosreport password disclosure - grub.conf md5 hashed password
• BZ - 1102282 - Set global{locking_type=0} when calling lvm2 commands
• BZ - 1105629 - Restoring dumpe2fs as collected by default instead of as option
• BZ - 1107862 - keepalived plugin

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)