RHSA-2005:584 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated zlib packages that fix a buffer overflow are now available for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

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

Description

Zlib is a general-purpose lossless data compression library that is used
by many different programs.

A previous zlib update, RHSA-2005:569 (CAN-2005-2096) fixed a flaw in zlib
that could allow a carefully crafted compressed stream to crash an
application. While the original patch corrected the reported overflow,
Markus Oberhumer discovered additional ways a stream could trigger an
overflow. An attacker could create a carefully crafted compressed stream
that would cause an application to crash if the stream is opened by a user.
As an example, an attacker could create a malicious PNG image file that
would cause a Web browser or mail viewer to crash if the image is viewed.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned
the name CAN-2005-1849 to this issue.

Note that the versions of zlib shipped with Red Hat Enterprise
Linux 2.1 and 3 are not vulnerable to this issue.

All users should update to these errata packages that contain a patch
from Mark Adler that corrects this issue.

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 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 - 163037 - CAN-2005-1849 zlib buffer overflow

CVEs

• CVE-2005-1849

References

(none)