RHSA-2005:761 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated pcre packages are now available to correct a security issue.

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

Description

PCRE is a Perl-compatible regular expression library.

An integer overflow flaw was found in PCRE, triggered by a maliciously
crafted regular expression. On systems that accept arbitrary regular
expressions from untrusted users, this could be exploited to execute
arbitrary code with the privileges of the application using the library.
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project assigned the name
CAN-2005-2491 to this issue.

The security impact of this issue varies depending on the way that
applications make use of PCRE. For example, the Apache web server uses the
system PCRE library in order to parse regular expressions, but this flaw
would only allow a user who already has the ability to write .htaccess
files to gain 'apache' privileges. For applications supplied with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux, a maximum security impact of moderate has been assigned.

Users should update to these erratum packages that contain a backported
patch to correct 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.

After updating you will need to restart all services that use the system
PCRE library. This can be done manually or by rebooting 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 Server 2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 2 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 Workstation 2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 2 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 - 166330 - CAN-2005-2491 PCRE heap overflow

CVEs

• CVE-2005-2491

References

(none)