RHSA-2008:0295 - Security Advisory

Topic

An updated vsftpd package that fixes a security issue and several bugs is
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

Description

The vsftpd package includes a Very Secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
daemon.

A memory leak was discovered in the vsftpd daemon. An attacker who is able
to connect to an FTP service, either as an authenticated or anonymous user,
could cause vsftpd to allocate all available memory if the "deny_file"
option was enabled in vsftpd.conf. (CVE-2007-5962)

As well, this updated package fixes following bugs:

• a race condition could occur even when the "lock_upload_files" option is

set. When uploading two files simultaneously, the result was a combination
of the two files. This resulted in uploaded files becoming corrupted. In
these updated packages, uploading two files simultaneously will result in a
file that is identical to the last uploaded file.

• when the "userlist_enable" option is used, failed log in attempts as a

result of the user not being in the list of allowed users, or being in the
list of denied users, will not be logged. In these updated packages, a new
"userlist_log=YES" option can be configured in vsftpd.conf, which will log
failed log in attempts in these situations.

• vsftpd did not support usernames that started with an underscore or a

period character. Usernames starting with an underscore or a period are
supported in these updated packages.

• using wildcards in conjunction with the "ls" command did not return all

the file names it should. For example, if you FTPed into a directory
containing three files -- A1, A21 and A11 -- and ran the "ls *1" command,
only the file names A1 and A21 were returned. These updated packages use
greedier code that continues to speculatively scan for items even after
matches have been found.

• when the "user_config_dir" option is enabled in vsftpd.conf, and the

user-specific configuration file did not exist, the following error
occurred after a user entered their password during the log in process:

500 OOPS: reading non-root config file

This has been resolved in this updated package.

All vsftpd users are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which
resolves these issues.

Solution

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

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 240553 - vsftpd has a create/lock race condition which corrupts uploads
• BZ - 392181 - vsftpd file listing issue with wildcard
• BZ - 392231 - Uploaded file corrupted when two connections from same client uploading same file simultaneously
• BZ - 397011 - CVE-2007-5962 vsftpd: memory leak when deny_file option is set
• BZ - 400921 - OOPS: reading non-root config file

CVEs

• CVE-2007-5962

References

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