RHSA-2008:0815 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated yum-rhn-plugin packages that fix a security issue are now available
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

Description

The yum-rhn-plugin provides support for yum to securely access a Red Hat
Network (RHN) server for software updates.

It was discovered that yum-rhn-plugin did not verify the SSL certificate
for all communication with a Red Hat Network server. An attacker able to
redirect the network communication between a victim and an RHN server could
use this flaw to provide malicious repository metadata. This metadata could
be used to block the victim from receiving specific security updates.
(CVE-2008-3270)

This flaw did not allow an attacker to install malicious packages. Package
signatures were verified and only packages signed with a trusted Red Hat
GPG key were installed.

Red Hat would like to thank Justin Cappos and Justin Samuel for discussing
various package update mechanism flaws which led to our discovery of this
issue.

Users of yum-rhn-plugin are advised to upgrade to this updated packages,
which resolves this issue.

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 for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.2 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.2 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.2 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.2 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 457113 - CVE-2008-3270 yum-rhn-plugin: does not verify SSL certificate for all communication with RHN server

CVEs

• CVE-2008-3270

References

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