- Issued:
- 2004-01-16
- Updated:
- 2004-01-16
RHEA-2003:350 - Product Enhancement Advisory
Synopsis
Updated netdump packages add non-secure, syslog-only options
Type/Severity
Product Enhancement Advisory
Topic
Updated netdump packages that add new features to netdump are now
available. These packages also fix a hang on PPC-based systems.
Description
Netdump makes it possible to save system crash dumps to another
network-connected system.
Because netdump encrypts the dump information, netdump requires the
propagation of host keys in order to work properly. This becomes difficult
to maintain and manage with large numbers of servers. For organizations
with many servers, it would be better if netdump could allow dumps to occur
with no such setup required.
It is now possible to use netdump in a non-secure fashion, for those
organizations with so many servers that host key management becomes a problem.
To run in this fashion, set the NETDUMPKEYXCHANGE parameter in
/etc/sysconfig/netdump as shown below:
NETDUMPKEYEXCHANGE=none
Note that this method of operating netdump results in the dumped data
appearing on the network in unencrypted form. You must determine if your
organization's potential exposure is such that disabling encryption is a
viable alternative or not.
You can also configure syslog functionality without netdump, as described
in /etc/sysconfig/netdump.
/etc/sysconfig/netdump documents the capability to use remote syslog
without having to configure netdump. This was not implemented properly.
As described in the /etc/sysconfig/netdump file, the NETDUMPADDR
parameter is the IP address or name of a machine running the
netdump server daemon. If NETDUMPADDR is set, kernel messages and
crash dump data will be sent to that machine. The SYSLOGADDR parameter
is the IP address or name of a machine running a syslogd daemon.
If SYSLOGADDR is set, kernel messages will be sent to that machine.
Either, or both, may be set in the client /etc/sysconfig/netdump file.
In addition, the netdump server on PPC-based systems would hang at startup;
this version resolves that issue.
Users of netdump that require the functionality described here should
upgrade to these packages.
Solution
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.
To update all RPMs for your particular architecture, run:
rpm -Fvh [filenames]
where [filenames] is a list of the RPMs you wish to upgrade. Only those
RPMs which are currently installed will be updated. Those RPMs which are
not installed but included in the list will not be updated. Note that you
can also use wildcards (*.rpm) if your current directory *only* contains the
desired RPMs.
Please note that this update is also available via Red Hat Network. Many
people find this an easier way to apply updates. To use Red Hat Network,
launch the Red Hat Update Agent with the following command:
up2date
This will start an interactive process that will result in the appropriate
RPMs being upgraded on your system.
If up2date fails to connect to Red Hat Network due to SSL
Certificate Errors, you need to install a version of the
up2date client with an updated certificate. The latest version of
up2date is available from the Red Hat FTP site and may also be
downloaded directly from the RHN website:
Affected Products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 ia64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 x86_64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 ia64
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 i386
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390x
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 3 ppc
Fixes
- BZ - 104258 - RHEL 2.1 U3: Netdump with no encryption.
- BZ - 109943 - netdump does not work without crashdumps
- BZ - 110951 - /etc/rc.d/init.d/netdump-server start doesn't return
CVEs
(none)
References
(none)
The Red Hat security contact is secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.