RHSA-2008:0562 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated ruby packages that fix several security issues are now available
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 and 3.

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

Description

Ruby is an interpreted scripting language for quick and easy
object-oriented programming.

Multiple integer overflows leading to a heap overflow were discovered in
the array- and string-handling code used by Ruby. An attacker could use
these flaws to crash a Ruby application or, possibly, execute arbitrary
code with the privileges of the Ruby application using untrusted inputs in
array or string operations. (CVE-2008-2376, CVE-2008-2663, CVE-2008-2725,
CVE-2008-2726)

It was discovered that Ruby used the alloca() memory allocation function in
the format (%) method of the String class without properly restricting
maximum string length. An attacker could use this flaw to crash a Ruby
application or, possibly, execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the
Ruby application using long, untrusted strings as format strings.
(CVE-2008-2664)

Red Hat would like to thank Drew Yao of the Apple Product Security team for
reporting these issues.

A flaw was discovered in the way Ruby's CGI module handles certain HTTP
requests. A remote attacker could send a specially crafted request and
cause the Ruby CGI script to enter an infinite loop, possibly causing a
denial of service. (CVE-2006-6303)

Users of Ruby should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain a
backported patches to resolve 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 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 2 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 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 3 i386
• 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 3 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 218287 - CVE-2006-6303 ruby's cgi.rb vulnerable infinite loop DoS
• BZ - 450825 - CVE-2008-2663 ruby: Integer overflows in rb_ary_store()
• BZ - 450834 - CVE-2008-2664 ruby: Unsafe use of alloca in rb_str_format()
• BZ - 451821 - CVE-2008-2725 ruby: integer overflow in rb_ary_splice/update/replace() - REALLOC_N
• BZ - 451828 - CVE-2008-2726 ruby: integer overflow in rb_ary_splice/update/replace() - beg + rlen
• BZ - 453589 - CVE-2008-2376 ruby: integer overflows in rb_ary_fill() / Array#fill

CVEs

• CVE-2008-2663
• CVE-2008-2664
• CVE-2008-2376
• CVE-2008-2725
• CVE-2008-2726
• CVE-2006-6303

References

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