RHSA-2010:0124 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated systemtap packages that fix two security issues are now available
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

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

Description

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux
kernel, version 2.6. Developers can write scripts to collect data on the
operation of the system.

A flaw was found in the SystemTap compile server, stap-server, an optional
component of SystemTap. This server did not adequately sanitize input
provided by the stap-client program, which may allow a remote user to
execute arbitrary shell code with the privileges of the compile server
process, which could possibly be running as the root user. (CVE-2009-4273)

Note: stap-server is not run by default. It must be started by a user or
administrator.

A buffer overflow flaw was found in SystemTap's tapset __get_argv()
function. If a privileged user ran a SystemTap script that called this
function, a local, unprivileged user could, while that script is still
running, trigger this flaw and cause memory corruption by running a command
with a large argument list, which may lead to a system crash or,
potentially, arbitrary code execution with root privileges. (CVE-2010-0411)

Note: SystemTap scripts that call __get_argv(), being a privileged
function, can only be executed by the root user or users in the stapdev
group. As well, if such a script was compiled and installed by root, users
in the stapusr group would also be able to execute it.

SystemTap users should upgrade to these updated packages, which contain
backported patches to correct 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 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 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 5.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 550172 - CVE-2009-4273 systemtap: remote code execution via stap-server
• BZ - 559719 - CVE-2010-0411 systemtap: Crash with systemtap script using __get_argv()

CVEs

• CVE-2009-4273
• CVE-2010-0411

References

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