Synopsis

ncompress security update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Low

Topic

Updated ncompress packages that address a security issue and fix bugs are
now available.

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

Description

The ncompress package contains file compression and decompression
utilities, which are compatible with the original UNIX compress utility (.Z
file extensions).

Tavis Ormandy of the Google Security Team discovered a lack of bounds
checking in ncompress. An attacker could create a carefully crafted file
that could execute arbitrary code if uncompressed by a victim. (CVE-2006-1168)

In addition, two bugs that affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 ncompress
packages were fixed:

• The display statistics and compression results in verbose mode were not
  shown when operating on zero length files.
  
• An attempt to compress zero length files resulted in an unexpected return
  code.
  

Users of ncompress are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct 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 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 - 189215 - ncompress does not display statistics when compressing 0 length files
• BZ - 189216 - Bad return code when compressing 0 length files
• BZ - 201335 - CVE-2006-1168 Possibility to underflow a .bss buffer with attacker controlled data

CVEs

• CVE-2006-1168

References

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4

SRPM
x86_64
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: cd007611dc96c38a978dcaa6152caa3b7316d4524ad6f42fdfcc4c92fa32327e
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: cd007611dc96c38a978dcaa6152caa3b7316d4524ad6f42fdfcc4c92fa32327e
ia64
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: ef224aa09844a7f2c6b5a4361d6a5d1ca31b0af772d47326b961fabf282cfa56
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: ef224aa09844a7f2c6b5a4361d6a5d1ca31b0af772d47326b961fabf282cfa56
i386
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.i386.rpm	SHA-256: f3f7b49fb32b87f40e334e5208adcb5d2dc17bcb7654f81d55f82373b41d95bb
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.i386.rpm	SHA-256: f3f7b49fb32b87f40e334e5208adcb5d2dc17bcb7654f81d55f82373b41d95bb

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4

SRPM
x86_64
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: cd007611dc96c38a978dcaa6152caa3b7316d4524ad6f42fdfcc4c92fa32327e
ia64
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: ef224aa09844a7f2c6b5a4361d6a5d1ca31b0af772d47326b961fabf282cfa56
i386
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.i386.rpm	SHA-256: f3f7b49fb32b87f40e334e5208adcb5d2dc17bcb7654f81d55f82373b41d95bb

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4

SRPM
x86_64
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: cd007611dc96c38a978dcaa6152caa3b7316d4524ad6f42fdfcc4c92fa32327e
i386
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.i386.rpm	SHA-256: f3f7b49fb32b87f40e334e5208adcb5d2dc17bcb7654f81d55f82373b41d95bb

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4

SRPM
s390x
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: cf1c0ea20eaa000921ab546a485dacdb236ae27d80260699cb4c24af2b4cabe8
s390
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.s390.rpm	SHA-256: 527499c98d85383168dcfed649714504d617d120b513c162804f8a0c79757df3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4

SRPM
ppc
ncompress-4.2.4-43.rhel4.ppc.rpm	SHA-256: c8ae179a6df1c17384136d7d9a43ec1ae6e905ec51c084a5c825ff8b28368f1e