RHEA-2005:205 - Product Enhancement Advisory

Topic

Updated authconfig packages that add various enhancements are now available.

Description

The authconfig package is a terminal mode program which can configure a
workstation to use shadow passwords. The authconfig package can also
configure a system to be a client for certain networked user information
and authentication schemes.

A system may be configured to authenticate users against a remote service,
such as LDAP or a Kerberos server. If such a system is disconnected from
the network, or the remote server is unavailable, local users (including
root) are unable to log in to the system. This update adds an option to the
authconfig utility that makes local authorization sufficient.

When SSL/TLS is enabled for connections to a LDAP server, it is necessary
to create a directory with the CA certificate(s) of that server in order to
prevent malicious servers from impersonating the trusted LDAP server. This
update creates the '/etc/openldap/cacerts' directory for CA certificates
and changes the configuration files of LDAP clients to use this directory.

All users of authconfig should upgrade to these updated packages, which add
these enhancements.

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:

https://rhn.redhat.com/help/latest-up2date.pxt

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 109359 - root cannot login if network is down and configured for NIS, LDAP, etc..

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)