RHSA-2003:293 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated OpenSSL packages are available that fix ASN.1 parsing vulnerabilities.

Description

OpenSSL is a commercial-grade, full-featured, and open source toolkit that
implements Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security
(TLS v1) protocols as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography
library.

NISCC testing of implementations of the SSL protocol uncovered two bugs in
OpenSSL 0.9.6. The parsing of unusual ASN.1 tag values can cause OpenSSL to
crash. A remote attacker could trigger this bug by sending a carefully
crafted SSL client certificate to an application. The effects of such an
attack vary depending on the application targetted; against Apache the
effects are limited, as the attack would only cause child processes to die
and be replaced. An attack against other applications that use OpenSSL
could result in a Denial of Service. The Common Vulnerabilities and
Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CAN-2003-0543 and
CAN-2003-0544 to this issue.

These erratum packages contain a patch provided by the OpenSSL group that
protects against this issue.

Because server applications are affected by this issue, users are advised
to either restart all services that use OpenSSL functionality or reboot
their systems after installing these updates.

Red Hat would like to thank NISCC and Stephen Henson for their work on this
vulnerability.

These packages also include a patch from OpenSSL 0.9.6f which removes
the calls to abort the process in certain circumstances. Red Hat would
like to thank Patrik Hornik for notifying us of this issue.

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 2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 2 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 2 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 104893 - CAN-2003-0543/0544 OpenSSL ASN.1 protocol crashes

CVEs

• CVE-2003-0544
• CVE-2003-0543

References

(none)