Synopsis

Moderate: vsftpd security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Moderate

Topic

An updated vsftpd package that fixes a security issue and various bugs is
now available.

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

Description

vsftpd (Very Secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP) daemon) is a secure FTP
server for Linux and Unix-like systems.

The version of vsftpd as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 when used in
combination with Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) had a memory leak
on an invalid authentication attempt. Since vsftpd prior to version 2.0.5
allows any number of invalid attempts on the same connection this memory
leak could lead to an eventual DoS. (CVE-2008-2375)

This update mitigates this security issue by including a backported patch
which terminates a session after a given number of failed log in attempts.
The default number of attempts is 3 and this can be configured using the
"max_login_fails" directive.

This package also addresses the following bugs:

• when uploading unique files, a bug in vsftpd caused the file to be saved
  with a suffix '.1' even when no previous file with that name existed. This
  issues is resolved in this package.
  
• when vsftpd was run through the init script, it was possible for the init
  script to print an 'OK' message, even though the vsftpd may not have
  started. The init script no longer produces a false verification with this
  update.
  
• vsftpd only supported usernames with a maximum length of 32 characters.
  The updated package now supports usernames up to 128 characters long.
  
• a system flaw meant vsftpd output could become dependent on the timing or
  sequence of other events, even when the "lock_upload_files" option was set.
  If a file, filename.ext, was being uploaded and a second transfer of the
  file, filename.ext, was started before the first transfer was finished, the
  resultant uploaded file was a corrupt concatenation of the latter upload
  and the tail of the earlier upload. With this updated package, vsftpd
  allows the earlier upload to complete before overwriting with the latter
  upload, fixing the issue.
  
• the 'lock_upload_files' option was not documented in the manual page. A
  new manual page describing this option is included in this package.
  
• vsftpd did not support usernames that started with an underscore or a
  period character. These special characters are now allowed at the beginning
  of a username.
  
• when storing a unique file, vsftpd could cause an error for some clients.
  This is rectified in this package.
  
• vsftpd init script was found to not be Linux Standards Base compliant.
  This update corrects their exit codes to conform to the standard.
  

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 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 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 - 197141 - vsftpd 2.0.1 memory leak
• BZ - 206843 - vsftpd is checked wrongly in init script
• BZ - 236326 - maximum username length too short
• BZ - 240550 - vsftpd has a create/lock race condition which corrupts uploads
• BZ - 250727 - Uploaded file corrupted when two connections from same client uploading same file simultaneously
• BZ - 316381 - lock_upload_files not documented in vsftpd.conf man page
• BZ - 408431 - Memory leak in pattern matching function
• BZ - 431450 - Wrong init script
• BZ - 453376 - CVE-2008-2375 older vsftpd authentication memory leak

CVEs

• CVE-2008-2375

References

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4

SRPM
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.src.rpm	SHA-256: 312fa5273bcbb3daff9b90353b9839f9fe48a6bb0c69b89c557e8cc4371fd44f
x86_64
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: ad7f9b601a27dc91e94370bf4c6118b95f48cb3b95d04a0ae80dbf2dc05b71e1
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: ad7f9b601a27dc91e94370bf4c6118b95f48cb3b95d04a0ae80dbf2dc05b71e1
ia64
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: 245ca5de2a19118a73dad803dec7862f36eaf77052b6d7d7fa05523fb1e7f607
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: 245ca5de2a19118a73dad803dec7862f36eaf77052b6d7d7fa05523fb1e7f607
i386
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 4231aa9b2ace9752f6274c19b9762964b707ac31f160ce287648b6c7ee4e530c
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 4231aa9b2ace9752f6274c19b9762964b707ac31f160ce287648b6c7ee4e530c

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4

SRPM
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.src.rpm	SHA-256: 312fa5273bcbb3daff9b90353b9839f9fe48a6bb0c69b89c557e8cc4371fd44f
s390x
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: 3ba045640c4eca79aa60ae62b830d40066902dfdee16a106b70f272ffe6c5421
s390
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.s390.rpm	SHA-256: 98bd41d6c1069abb4fce2a4376482dd5ec73eab0c9a2fde403849b5d18fe2f94

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4

SRPM
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.src.rpm	SHA-256: 312fa5273bcbb3daff9b90353b9839f9fe48a6bb0c69b89c557e8cc4371fd44f
ppc
vsftpd-2.0.1-6.el4.ppc.rpm	SHA-256: 0353b0431c7cbf079f6a63ed33e38bf1543f654158b335439c7111548e474430