Topic

An updated mod_auth_mysql package to correct a security issue is 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 mod_auth_mysql package includes an extension module for the Apache HTTP
Server which can be used to implement web user authentication against a
MySQL database.

A flaw was found in the way mod_auth_mysql escaped certain
multibyte-encoded strings. If mod_auth_mysql was configured to use a
multibyte character set that allowed a backslash '\' as part of the
character encodings, a remote attacker could inject arbitrary SQL commands
into a login request. (CVE-2008-2384)

Note: This flaw only affected non-default installations where
AuthMySQLCharacterSet is configured to use one of the affected multibyte
character sets. Installations that did not use the AuthMySQLCharacterSet
configuration option were not vulnerable to this flaw.

All mod_auth_mysql users are advised to upgrade to the updated package,
which contains a backported patch to resolve this issue. After installing
the update, the httpd daemon must be restarted for the fix to take effect.

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/docs/DOC-11259

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 5.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.3 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 5.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 5.3 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 5.3 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 IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.3 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 480238 - CVE-2008-2384 mod_auth_mysql: character encoding SQL injection flaw

CVEs

• CVE-2008-2384

References

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