RHBA-2015:2511 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated passwd packages that fix one bug are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The passwd packages contain the passwd system utility, which sets or changes passwords using the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) library.

This update fixes the following bug:

• When updating a password using the "passwd --stdin" command, the command accepted only 79 characters and then silently ignored the rest of the input. Consequently, the command did not update the password correctly, and subsequent authentication attempts using such incorrectly updated password failed. With this update, "passwd --stdin" accepts passwords up to 511 characters and does not silently truncate longer input. Instead, the command now refuses passwords longer than 511 characters, and displays a message to inform the user that the supplied password exceeds the limit. (BZ#1187105)

Users of passwd are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix this bug.

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 - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#normal