Topic

Updated automake, automake14, automake15, automake16, and automake17
packages that fix one security issue are now available for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having low
security impact. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score,
which gives a detailed severity rating, is available from the CVE link in
the References section.

Description

Automake is a tool for automatically generating Makefile.in files compliant
with the GNU Coding Standards.

Automake-generated Makefiles made certain directories world-writable when
preparing source archives, as was recommended by the GNU Coding Standards.
If a malicious, local user could access the directory where a victim was
creating distribution archives, they could use this flaw to modify the
files being added to those archives. Makefiles generated by these updated
automake packages no longer make distribution directories world-writable,
as recommended by the updated GNU Coding Standards. (CVE-2009-4029)

Note: This issue affected Makefile targets used by developers to prepare
distribution source archives. Those targets are not used when compiling
programs from the source code.

All users of automake, automake14, automake15, automake16, and automake17
should upgrade to these updated packages, which resolve this issue.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the 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 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 - 542609 - CVE-2009-4029 Automake: Race condition by creation of "distdir" based directory hierarchy

CVEs

• CVE-2009-4029

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#low
• http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Releases.html