RHSA-2006:0543 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated spamassassin packages that fix an arbitrary code execution flaw
are now available.

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

Description

SpamAssassin provides a way to reduce unsolicited commercial email (SPAM)
from incoming email.

A flaw was found with the way the Spamassassin spamd daemon processes the
virtual pop username passed to it. If a site is running spamd with both the

• -vpopmail and --paranoid flags, it is possible for a remote user with the

ability to connect to the spamd daemon to execute arbitrary commands as
the user running the spamd daemon. (CVE-2006-2447)

Note: None of the IMAP or POP servers shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 support vpopmail delivery. Running spamd with the --vpopmail and

• -paranoid flags is uncommon and not the default startup option as shipped

with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

Spamassassin, as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, performs RBL
lookups against visi.com to help determine if an email is spam. However,
this DNS RBL has recently disappeared, resulting in mail filtering delays
and timeouts.

Users of SpamAssassin should upgrade to these updated packages containing
version 3.0.6 and backported patches, which are not vulnerable to these issues.

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 - 178580 - /etc/sysconfig/spamassasin loses file context and timestamp
• BZ - 191033 - spamassassin looks up broken NS domain (visi.com)
• BZ - 193865 - CVE-2006-2447 spamassassin arbitrary command execution

CVEs

• CVE-2006-2447

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate