Synopsis

glibc security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Low

Topic

Updated glibc packages that address several bugs are now available.

This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat
Security Response Team.

Description

The GNU libc packages (known as glibc) contain the standard C libraries
used by applications.

Flaws in the catchsegv and glibcbug scripts were discovered. A local user
could utilize these flaws to overwrite files via a symlink attack on
temporary files. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project
(cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CAN-2004-0968 and CAN-2004-1382 to
these issues.

It was discovered that the use of LD_DEBUG and LD_SHOW_AUXV were not
restricted for a setuid program. A local user could utilize this flaw to
gain information, such as the list of symbols used by the program. The
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned
the name CAN-2004-1453 to this issue.

This erratum also addresses the following bugs in the GNU C Library:

• Now avoids calling sigaction (SIGPIPE, ...) in syslog implementation
  
• Fixed poll on Itanium
  
• Now allows setenv/putenv in shared library constructors
  

Users of glibc are advised to upgrade to these erratum packages that remove
the unecessary glibcbug script and contain backported patches to correct
these other 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 - 140068 - [RHAS2.1] CAN-2004-0968 temporary file vulnerabilities in catchsegv script
• BZ - 140487 - [RHAS2.1] Bad declaration of __syscall_poll can cause bogus values for timeout to be passed to the kernel
• BZ - 148800 - CAN-2004-1382 insecure temporary file usage
• BZ - 148814 - CAN-2004-1453 Information leak with LD_DEBUG

CVEs

• CVE-2004-1453
• CVE-2004-1382
• CVE-2004-0968

References

(none)

This erratum does not contain any packages.