RHSA-2012:1206 - Security Advisory

Topic

An updated python-paste-script package that fixes one security issue is now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

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

Python Paste provides middleware for building and running Python web
applications. The python-paste-script package includes paster, a tool for
working with and running Python Paste applications.

It was discovered that paster did not drop supplementary group privileges
when started by the root user. Running "paster serve" as root to start a
Python web application that will run as a non-root user and group resulted
in that application running with root group privileges. This could possibly
allow a remote attacker to gain access to files that should not be
accessible to the application. (CVE-2012-0878)

All paster users should upgrade to this updated package, which contains a
backported patch to resolve this issue. All running paster instances
configured to drop privileges 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 for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 6.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 6.3 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 for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 6.3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 6.3 ppc64
• 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 Update Support from RHUI 6.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI 6.3 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 - 796790 - CVE-2012-0878 python-paste-script: Supplementary groups not dropped when started an application with "paster serve" as root

CVEs

• CVE-2012-0878

References

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