RHSA-2005:433 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated postgresql packages that fix several security vulnerabilities and
risks of data loss are now available.

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

Description

PostgreSQL is an advanced Object-Relational database management system
(DBMS) that supports almost all SQL constructs (including
transactions, subselects and user-defined types and functions).

The PostgreSQL community discovered two distinct errors in initial system
catalog entries that could allow authorized database users to crash the
database and possibly escalate their privileges. The Common
Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the
names CAN-2005-1409 and CAN-2005-1410 to these issues.

Although installing this update will protect new (freshly initdb'd)
database installations from these errors, administrators MUST TAKE MANUAL
ACTION to repair the errors in pre-existing databases. The appropriate
procedures are explained at
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/release-7-4-8.html
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users, or
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/release-7-3-10.html
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 users.

This update corrects several problems that might occur while trying to
upgrade a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 installation (containing rh-postgresql
packages) to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (containing postgresql packages).
These updated packages correctly supersede the rh-postgresql packages.

The original release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 failed to initialize the
database correctly if started for the first time with SELinux in
enforcement mode. This update corrects that problem.

If you already have a nonfunctional database in place, shut down the
postgresql service if running, install this update, then do "sudo rm -rf
/var/lib/pgsql/data" before restarting the postgresql service.

This update also solves the problem that the PostgreSQL server might fail
to restart after a system reboot, due to a stale lockfile.

This update also corrects a problem with wrong error messages in libpq,
the postgresql client library. The library would formerly report kernel
error messages incorrectly when the locale setting was not C.

This update also includes fixes for several other errors, including two
race conditions that could result in apparent data inconsistency or actual
data loss.

All users of PostgreSQL are advised to upgrade to these updated packages
and to apply the recommended manual corrections to existing databases.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. 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.

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 Server 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 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 Workstation 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 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 IBM z Systems 3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 3 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 3 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 149237 - selinux <<EOF bug breaks PostgreSQL too
• BZ - 151421 - PostgreSQL server does not start after crash because wrong PID file location
• BZ - 151911 - upgrade from rhel-3 rh-postgresql to rhel-4 postgresql removes user "postgres"
• BZ - 156726 - CAN-2005-1409 Multiple postgresql issues (CAN-2005-1410)

CVEs

• CVE-2005-1409
• CVE-2005-1410

References

(none)