RHSA-2004:600 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated apache and mod_ssl packages that fix various minor security issues
and bugs in the Apache Web server are now available for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 2.1.

Description

The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful, full-featured, efficient, and
freely-available Web server. The mod_ssl module provides strong
cryptography for the Apache Web server via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols.

A buffer overflow was discovered in the mod_include module. This flaw
could allow a local user who is authorized to create server-side include
(SSI) files to gain the privileges of a httpd child (user 'apache'). The
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned
the name CAN-2004-0940 to this issue.

The mod_digest module does not properly verify the nonce of a client
response by using a AuthNonce secret. This could allow a malicious user who
is able to sniff network traffic to conduct a replay attack against a
website using Digest protection. Note that mod_digest implements an older
version of the MD5 Digest Authentication specification, which is known not
to work with modern browsers. This issue does not affect mod_auth_digest.
(CAN-2003-0987).

An issue has been discovered in the mod_ssl module when configured to use
the "SSLCipherSuite" directive in a directory or location context. If a
particular location context has been configured to require a specific set
of cipher suites, then a client is able to access that location using
any cipher suite allowed by the virtual host configuration. (CAN-2004-0885).

Several bugs in mod_ssl were also discovered, including:

• memory leaks in SSL variable handling
• possible crashes in the dbm and shmht session caches

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 users of the Apache HTTP Server should upgrade
to these erratum packages, which contains Apache version 1.3.27 with
backported patches correcting these issues.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied. Use Red Hat
Network to download and update your packages. To launch the Red Hat
Update Agent, use the following command:

up2date

For information on how to install packages manually, refer to the
following Web page for the System Administration or Customization
guide specific to your system:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

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 - 131360 - RHEL 2.1 mod_ssl missing shmht fixes
• BZ - 134826 - CAN-2004-0885 SSLCipherSuite bypass
• BZ - 137417 - CAN-2004-0940 mod_include local escalation
• BZ - 137419 - CAN-2003-0987 mod_digest nonce checking flaw

CVEs

• CVE-2004-0940
• CVE-2003-0987
• CVE-2004-0885

References

(none)