RHBA-2016:1667 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

Description

The cronie packages contain the standard UNIX daemon crond, which runs specified programs at scheduled times, and related tools. They are a fork of the original vixie-cron cron implementation and have security and configuration enhancements like the ability to use Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAMs) and SELinux.

• Previously, getpwnam() failures were not handled as temporary failures. Consequently, cron jobs failed to be executed not only during downtime of the server providing user identity, but also after the server was running again. With this update, all getpwnam() failures are handled as temporary. As a result, cron jobs are executed after user identity server downtime. (BZ#1358803)
• Previously, when cronie was set to redirect cron job output to syslog using the "-s" flag, the output loop exited prematurely. Consequently, the output was truncated after the first character. With this update, the output loop no longer exits prematurely. As a result, cron job output is logged correctly now. (BZ#1358804)

Users of cronie are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix two bugs.

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
• 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 - 1358804 - cronie has a bug when run with syslog flag

CVEs

(none)

References

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