RHSA-2011:0554 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated python packages that fix three security issues, several bugs, and
add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having moderate
security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores,
which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability
from the CVE links in the References section.

Description

Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming
language.

A flaw was found in the Python urllib and urllib2 libraries where they
would not differentiate between different target URLs when handling
automatic redirects. This caused Python applications using these modules to
follow any new URL that they understood, including the "file://" URL type.
This could allow a remote server to force a local Python application to
read a local file instead of the remote one, possibly exposing local files
that were not meant to be exposed. (CVE-2011-1521)

A race condition was found in the way the Python smtpd module handled new
connections. A remote user could use this flaw to cause a Python script
using the smtpd module to terminate. (CVE-2010-3493)

An information disclosure flaw was found in the way the Python
CGIHTTPServer module processed certain HTTP GET requests. A remote attacker
could use a specially-crafted request to obtain the CGI script's source
code. (CVE-2011-1015)

This erratum also upgrades Python to upstream version 2.6.6, and includes a
number of bug fixes and enhancements. Documentation for these bug fixes
and enhancements is available from the Technical Notes document, linked to
in the References section.

All users of Python are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
correct these issues, and fix the bugs and add the enhancements noted in
the Technical Notes.

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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 603073 - python >>> help() >>> modules command traceback when used without DISPLAY
• BZ - 614680 - Try to print repr() when a fatal garbage collection assertion fails
• BZ - 625393 - adjust test_commands unit test to the updated output of the ls command
• BZ - 625395 - include the tests/data directory in the python-test rpm
• BZ - 626756 - test_dbm fails on ppc64 & s390x
• BZ - 627301 - Rebase python from 2.6.5 to 2.6.6 in RHEL 6.1
• BZ - 632200 - CVE-2010-3493 Python: SMTP proxy RFC 2821 module DoS (uncaught exception) (Issue #9129)
• BZ - 634944 - rpmlint errors and warnings
• BZ - 639392 - Generating python backtrace with "py-bt" fails with a traceback
• BZ - 649274 - Infinite recursion in urllib2 on basicauth failure
• BZ - 650588 - subprocess fails in select when descriptors are large (rhel6)
• BZ - 669847 - urllib2's AbstractBasicAuthHandler is limited to 6 requests
• BZ - 680094 - CVE-2011-1015 python (CGIHTTPServer): CGI script source code disclosure
• BZ - 684991 - python update causes rhythmbox to crash
• BZ - 690315 - python occasionally fails to build on machines with more than one core
• BZ - 690560 - CVE-2011-1521 python (urllib, urllib2): Improper management of ftp:// and file:// URL schemes (Issue #11662)

CVEs

• CVE-2010-3493
• CVE-2011-1521
• CVE-2011-1015

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate
• http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/6.1_Technical_Notes/python.html
• http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.6/NEWS.txt