RHBA-2015:0704 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

Description

The cronie packages contain the standard UNIX daemon crond that runs specified
programs at scheduled times and the anacron tool that enables crond to run jobs
also on machines that are not continuously switched on.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, the anacron process could terminate unexpectedly in cases when the

anacrontab file contained incorrect configuration settings. To fix this bug, the
configuration settings format check has been amended, and the anacron process no
longer crashes. (BZ#1031383)

• Prior to this update, the crond pid file could be erroneously removed in case

a crond sub-process terminated unexpectedly. With this update, handling of the
crond sub-processes termination has been corrected, and the removal no longer
occurs. (BZ#1082232)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• The crond daemon now logs shutdowns. Its proper terminations are therefore

distinguishable from abnormal ones. (BZ#1108384)

• The crond daemon now logs errors when jobs are skipped due to getpwnam() call

failures. (BZ#1123984)

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.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

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
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 1031383 - anacron segfaults with certain config data
• BZ - 1108384 - cron daemon fails to log that it is shutting down.

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)