RHSA-2011:1691 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated util-linux-ng packages that fix multiple 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 low
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

The util-linux-ng packages contain a large variety of low-level system
utilities that are necessary for a Linux operating system to function.

Multiple flaws were found in the way the mount and umount commands
performed mtab (mounted file systems table) file updates. A local,
unprivileged user allowed to mount or unmount file systems could use these
flaws to corrupt the mtab file and create a stale lock file, preventing
other users from mounting and unmounting file systems. (CVE-2011-1675,
CVE-2011-1677)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Due to a hard coded limit of 128 devices, an attempt to run the

"blkid -c" command on more than 128 devices caused blkid to terminate
unexpectedly. This update increases the maximum number of devices to 8192
so that blkid no longer crashes in this scenario. (BZ#675999)

• Previously, the "swapon -a" command did not detect device-mapper

devices that were already in use. This update corrects the swapon utility
to detect such devices as expected. (BZ#679741)

• Prior to this update, the presence of an invalid line in the /etc/fstab

file could cause the umount utility to terminate unexpectedly with
a segmentation fault. This update applies a patch that corrects this error
so that umount now correctly reports invalid lines and no longer crashes.
(BZ#684203)

• Previously, an attempt to use the wipefs utility on a partitioned

device caused the utility to terminate unexpectedly with an error. This
update adapts wipefs to only display a warning message in this situation.
(BZ#696959)

• When providing information on interprocess communication (IPC)

facilities, the ipcs utility could previously display a process owner as
a negative number if the user's UID was too large. This update adapts the
underlying source code to make sure the UID values are now displayed
correctly. (BZ#712158)

• In the installation scriptlets, the uuidd package uses the chkconfig

utility to enable and disable the uuidd service. Previously, this package
did not depend on the chkconfig package, which could lead to errors during
installation if chkconfig was not installed. This update adds chkconfig
to the list of dependencies so that such errors no longer occur.
(BZ#712808)

• The previous version of the /etc/udev/rules.d/60-raw.rules file

contained a statement that both this file and raw devices are deprecated.
This is no longer true and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel supports
this functionality. With this update, the aforementioned file no longer
contains this incorrect statement. (BZ#716995)

• Previously, an attempt to use the cfdisk utility to read the default

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 partition layout failed with an error. This
update corrects this error and the cfdisk utility can now read the default
partition layout as expected. (BZ#723352)

• The previous version of the tailf(1) manual page incorrectly stated that

users can use the "--lines=NUMBER" command line option to limit the number
of displayed lines. However, the tailf utility does not allow the use of
the equals sign (=) between the option and its argument. This update
corrects this error. (BZ#679831)

• The fstab(5) manual page has been updated to clarify that empty lines in

the /etc/fstab configuration file are ignored. (BZ#694648)

As well, this update adds the following enhancements:

• A new fstrim utility has been added to the package. This utility allows

the root user to discard unused blocks on a mounted file system.
(BZ#692119)

• The login utility has been updated to provide support for failed login

attempts that are reported by PAM. (BZ#696731)

• The lsblk utility has been updated to provide additional information

about the topology and status of block devices. (BZ#723638)

• The agetty utility has been updated to pass the hostname to the login

utility. (BZ#726092)

All users of util-linux-ng are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues and add
these enhancements.

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 x86_64
• 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 (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 675999 - blkid crashes on a server with more than 128 storage devices
• BZ - 679741 - canonicalize swap devices
• BZ - 679831 - --lines does not work: tailf: invalid option
• BZ - 684203 - umount fails on inconsistent fstab
• BZ - 692119 - Include fstrim tool to enable user-space using discard/UNMAP/WRITE_SAME for enterprise arrays
• BZ - 694648 - [RHEL6] Blank line at head of fstab
• BZ - 695916 - CVE-2011-1675 util-linux: mount fails to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE
• BZ - 695924 - CVE-2011-1677 util-linux: umount may fail to remove /etc/mtab~ lock file
• BZ - 696731 - display failed login attempts
• BZ - 696959 - wipefs(8) reject partitioned devices
• BZ - 712158 - uid/gid overflow in ipcs
• BZ - 712808 - uuidd should depend on chkconfig
• BZ - 716995 - Remove Deprecation Statement in /etc/udev/rules.d/60-raw.rules
• BZ - 723352 - cfdisk cannot read default installer partitioning
• BZ - 723546 - Defects revealed by Coverity scan
• BZ - 723638 - Backport upstream extensions for lsblk
• BZ - 726092 - Pass host name from agetty to login

CVEs

• CVE-2011-1677
• CVE-2011-1675

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#low