RHSA-2009:1471 - Security Advisory

Topic

An updated elinks package that fixes two security issues is now available
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.

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

Description

ELinks is a text-based Web browser. ELinks does not display any images, but
it does support frames, tables, and most other HTML tags.

An off-by-one buffer overflow flaw was discovered in the way ELinks handled
its internal cache of string representations for HTML special entities. A
remote attacker could use this flaw to create a specially-crafted HTML file
that would cause ELinks to crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code when
rendered. (CVE-2008-7224)

It was discovered that ELinks tried to load translation files using
relative paths. A local attacker able to trick a victim into running ELinks
in a folder containing specially-crafted translation files could use this
flaw to confuse the victim via incorrect translations, or cause ELinks to
crash and possibly execute arbitrary code via embedded formatting sequences
in translated messages. (CVE-2007-2027)

All ELinks users are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which
contains 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/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 Server 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• 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 IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.8 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.8 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 4.8 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 235411 - CVE-2007-2027 elinks tries to load .po files from a non-absolute path
• BZ - 523258 - CVE-2008-7224 elinks: entity_cache static array buffer overflow (off-by-one)

CVEs

• CVE-2008-7224
• CVE-2007-2027

References

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