RHSA-2012:0973 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated nss, nss-util, and nspr packages that fix one security issue,
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.

Description

Network Security Services (NSS) is a set of libraries designed to support
the cross-platform development of security-enabled client and server
applications. Netscape Portable Runtime (NSPR) provides platform
independence for non-GUI operating system facilities.

It was found that a Certificate Authority (CA) issued a subordinate CA
certificate to its customer, that could be used to issue certificates for
any name. This update renders the subordinate CA certificate as untrusted.
(BZ#798533)

Note: This fix only applies to applications using the NSS Builtin Object
Token. It does not render the certificates untrusted for applications that
use the NSS library, but do not use the NSS Builtin Object Token.

The nspr package has been upgraded to upstream version 4.9, which provides
a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version.
(BZ#799193)

The nss-util package has been upgraded to upstream version 3.13.3, which
provides a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version.
(BZ#799192)

The nss package has been upgraded to upstream version 3.13.3, which
provides numerous bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version. In
particular, SSL 2.0 is now disabled by default, support for SHA-224 has
been added, PORT_ErrorToString and PORT_ErrorToName now return the error
message and symbolic name of an NSS error code, and NSS_GetVersion now
returns the NSS version string. (BZ#744070)

These updated nss, nss-util, and nspr packages also provide fixes for the
following bugs:

• A PEM module internal function did not clean up memory when detecting a

non-existent file name. Consequently, memory leaks in client code occurred.
The code has been improved to deallocate such temporary objects and as a
result the reported memory leakage is gone. (BZ#746632)

• Recent changes to NSS re-introduced a problem where applications could

not use multiple SSL client certificates in the same process. Therefore,
any attempt to run commands that worked with multiple SSL client
certificates, such as the "yum repolist" command, resulted in a
re-negotiation handshake failure. With this update, a revised patch
correcting this problem has been applied to NSS, and using multiple SSL
client certificates in the same process is now possible again. (BZ#761086)

• The PEM module did not fully initialize newly constructed objects with

function pointers set to NULL. Consequently, a segmentation violation in
libcurl was sometimes experienced while accessing a package repository.
With this update, the code has been changed to fully initialize newly
allocated objects. As a result, updates can now be installed without
problems. (BZ#768669)

• A lack-of-robustness flaw caused the administration server for Red Hat

Directory Server to terminate unexpectedly because the mod_nss module made
nss calls before initializing nss as per the documented API. With this
update, nss protects itself against being called before it has been
properly initialized by the caller. (BZ#784674)

• Compilation errors occurred with some compilers when compiling code

against NSS 3.13.1. The following error message was displayed:

pkcs11n.h:365:26: warning: "__GNUC_MINOR" is not defined

An upstream patch has been applied to improve the code and the problem no
longer occurs. (BZ#795693)

• Unexpected terminations were reported in the messaging daemon (qpidd)

included in Red Hat Enterprise MRG after a recent update to nss. This
occurred because qpidd made nss calls before initializing nss. These
updated packages prevent qpidd and other affected processes that call nss
without initializing as mandated by the API from crashing. (BZ#797426)

Users of NSS, NSPR, and nss-util are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which fix these issues and add these enhancements. After
installing this update, applications using NSS, NSPR, or nss-util must be
restarted for this update to take effect.

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/knowledge/articles/11258

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 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 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 - 717913 - [PEM] various flaws detected by Coverity
• BZ - 746632 - [PEM] pem_CreateObject() leaks memory given a non-existing file name
• BZ - 768669 - [PEM] an unregistered callback causes a SIGSEGV
• BZ - 769616 - CKFW leaks memory when loading libnsspem.so after upgrade of nss
• BZ - 772053 - premature unloading of softoken crashes libcurl
• BZ - 772628 - nss_Init() leaks memory
• BZ - 784674 - nss should protect against being called before nss_Init
• BZ - 795693 - /usr/include/nss3/pkcs11n.h:365:26: warning: "__GNUC_MINOR" is not defined
• BZ - 797426 - Qpid AMQP daemon fails to load after latest updates
• BZ - 798533 - nss: Distrust MITM subCAs issued by TrustWave
• BZ - 799192 - Rebase nss-util to 3.13.3
• BZ - 799193 - Update nspr to 4.9
• BZ - 805232 - pem module may attempt to free an uninitialized pointer

CVEs

(none)

References

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