RHSA-2012:1036 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated postgresql 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 moderate
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

PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system
(DBMS).

A flaw was found in the way the crypt() password hashing function from the
optional PostgreSQL pgcrypto contrib module performed password
transformation when used with the DES algorithm. If the password string to
be hashed contained the 0x80 byte value, the remainder of the string was
ignored when calculating the hash, significantly reducing the password
strength. This made brute-force guessing more efficient as the whole
password was not required to gain access to protected resources.
(CVE-2012-2143)

Note: With this update, the rest of the string is properly included in the
DES hash; therefore, any previously stored password values that are
affected by this issue will no longer match. In such cases, it will be
necessary for those stored password hashes to be updated.

Upstream acknowledges Rubin Xu and Joseph Bonneau as the original reporters
of this issue.

All PostgreSQL users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which contain a backported patch to correct this issue. If the postgresql
service is running, it will be automatically restarted after installing
this update.

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 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 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 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 - 816956 - CVE-2012-2143 BSD crypt(): DES encrypted password weakness

CVEs

• CVE-2012-2143

References

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