RHBA-2014:1533 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

The updated polkit packages that fix several bugs and add two enhancements are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

PolicyKit is a toolkit for defining and handling authorizations.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, running the pkaction command with invalid arguments opened the

corresponding manual page instead of generating a warning, or giving any other
indication of erroneous behavior. With this update, the user is informed by an
error message. (BZ#628862)

• Prior to this update, in PolicyKit local authority, the order of processing

configuration files within a directory depended only on file system specifics.
The ordering has been made consistent to avoid surprising changes in behavior
but remains unspecified and may change in future updates of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux; use the documented ordering of directory names if your configuration
relies on ordering of the .pkla configuration files. (BZ#864613)

• Prior to this update, if a process subject to an authorization query became a

zombie before completing the authorization, the polkitd daemon could terminate
unexpectedly. Handling of zombie processes has been improved to fix this crash.
(BZ#1132830)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• With this update, all polkit binary files have been compiled with the RELRO

option, and where applicable, with the PIE option, to increase resilience
against various attacks. (BZ#927406)

• With this update, more flexibility in polkit rules is allowed. In addition to

the existing “unix-user:" and “unix-group:” identity specifications, a new
specification “default” can be used to specify authorization result for users
that do not match either of the ”unix-user:” or “unix-group:” specifications.
(BZ#812684)

Users of polkit 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 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 - 628862 - On RHEL 6, running "pkaction --action-id" just displays a man page
• BZ - 812684 - pklocalauthority: unable to block access for all users except certain group members
• BZ - 864613 - Authorization list comes out in wrong order in PolicyKit local authority

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)