Synopsis

Low: gdm security and bug fix update

Type/Severity

Security Advisory: Low

Topic

Updated gdm packages that fix a security issue and several bugs are 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 GNOME Display Manager (GDM) is a configurable re-implementation of XDM,
the X Display Manager. GDM allows you to log in to your system with the X
Window System running, and supports running several different X sessions on
your local machine at the same time.

A flaw was found in the way the gdm package was built. The gdm package was
missing TCP wrappers support, which could result in an administrator
believing they had access restrictions enabled when they did not.
(CVE-2009-2697)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• the GDM Reference Manual is now included with the gdm packages. The
  gdm-docs package installs this document in HTML format in
  "/usr/share/doc/". (BZ#196054)
  
• GDM appeared in English on systems using Telugu (te_IN). With this
  update, GDM has been localized in te_IN. (BZ#226931)
  
• the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace sequence resets the X server when in runlevel 5.
  In previous releases, however, repeated use of this sequence prevented GDM
  from starting the X server as part of the reset process. This was because
  GDM sometimes did not notice the X server shutdown properly and would
  subsequently fail to complete the reset process. This update contains an
  added check to explicitly notify GDM whenever the X server is terminated,
  ensuring that resets are executed reliably. (BZ#441971)
  
• the "gdm" user is now part of the "audio" group by default. This enables
  audio support at the login screen. (BZ#458331)
  
• the gui/modules/dwellmouselistener.c source code contained incorrect
  XInput code that prevented tablet devices from working properly. This
  update removes the errant code, ensuring that tablet devices work as
  expected. (BZ#473262)
  
• a bug in the XOpenDevice() function prevented the X server from starting
  whenever a device defined in "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" was not actually plugged
  in. This update wraps XOpenDevice() in the gdk_error_trap_pop() and
  gdk_error_trap_push() functions, which resolves this bug. This ensures that
  the X server can start properly even when devices defined in
  "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" are not plugged in. (BZ#474588)
  

All users should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve these
issues. GDM must be restarted for this update to take effect. Rebooting
achieves this, but changing the runlevel from 5 to 3 and back to 5 also
restarts GDM.

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 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 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 - 239818 - CVE-2009-2697 gdm not built with tcp_wrappers
• BZ - 441971 - [RHEL5] GDM sometimes doesn't come back after ctrl-alt-backspace
• BZ - 458331 - Add supplementary audio group to the gdm user
• BZ - 473262 - Mouse cursor not movable when using tablet instead of mouse
• BZ - 474588 - gdmgreeter crashes if input device (ex wacom) is defined but not plugged

CVEs

• CVE-2009-2697

References

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5

SRPM
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: 7dab4e3c0e1645124f6a288670fc7b07c0f6e1246808ac8ed950bd6173e3efe4
x86_64
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a2432a1442e8ffdec93251dfd32bae78b542fe2a9b9c8bf6e52686975851b31e
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 209466b4b9f985545ee7d3876374f94a60a463681ee958ef0ddddac62faa4736
ia64
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: 47fe0598fd3965723c2de779e8bef72f54423e261c4f589b59b913814f309baa
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.ia64.rpm	SHA-256: a59a69c623660ba9628dbeabc328dce6ca0257779c15cc89aa34bd924a6cddd6
i386
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 2972384c95abd1d78708cf60797b09dc882d6ccb868e0707a162c4602087154f
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 9e374599d7c308929195dd1f7107b5d3e79539726b5369461fd7c2b67b9fa000

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5

SRPM
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: 7dab4e3c0e1645124f6a288670fc7b07c0f6e1246808ac8ed950bd6173e3efe4
x86_64
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a2432a1442e8ffdec93251dfd32bae78b542fe2a9b9c8bf6e52686975851b31e
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 209466b4b9f985545ee7d3876374f94a60a463681ee958ef0ddddac62faa4736
i386
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 2972384c95abd1d78708cf60797b09dc882d6ccb868e0707a162c4602087154f
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 9e374599d7c308929195dd1f7107b5d3e79539726b5369461fd7c2b67b9fa000

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5

SRPM
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: 7dab4e3c0e1645124f6a288670fc7b07c0f6e1246808ac8ed950bd6173e3efe4
x86_64
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a2432a1442e8ffdec93251dfd32bae78b542fe2a9b9c8bf6e52686975851b31e
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 209466b4b9f985545ee7d3876374f94a60a463681ee958ef0ddddac62faa4736
i386
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 2972384c95abd1d78708cf60797b09dc882d6ccb868e0707a162c4602087154f
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 9e374599d7c308929195dd1f7107b5d3e79539726b5369461fd7c2b67b9fa000

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5

SRPM
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: 7dab4e3c0e1645124f6a288670fc7b07c0f6e1246808ac8ed950bd6173e3efe4
s390x
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: d3ad8a985186561a7eef006e3c59bd36ffab8ee39b401611099decf04ce8a851
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.s390x.rpm	SHA-256: 8781f03d216ddf36def1c934e6cbc9e946de39967632f21703fc48058a90ba49

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5

SRPM
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: 7dab4e3c0e1645124f6a288670fc7b07c0f6e1246808ac8ed950bd6173e3efe4
ppc
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.ppc.rpm	SHA-256: e9b955a6907cce849558a846f08d23220f8d749acd53272d14984ccfbb9b3657
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.ppc.rpm	SHA-256: 58611b40144515d774b80d489cac0e97eabc774d3c1ea5ea48cf8bd51ddc72ed

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5

SRPM
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.src.rpm	SHA-256: 7dab4e3c0e1645124f6a288670fc7b07c0f6e1246808ac8ed950bd6173e3efe4
x86_64
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: a2432a1442e8ffdec93251dfd32bae78b542fe2a9b9c8bf6e52686975851b31e
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.x86_64.rpm	SHA-256: 209466b4b9f985545ee7d3876374f94a60a463681ee958ef0ddddac62faa4736
i386
gdm-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 2972384c95abd1d78708cf60797b09dc882d6ccb868e0707a162c4602087154f
gdm-docs-2.16.0-56.el5.i386.rpm	SHA-256: 9e374599d7c308929195dd1f7107b5d3e79539726b5369461fd7c2b67b9fa000