RHSA-2012:1207 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated glibc packages that fix multiple security issues and one bug 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

The glibc packages provide the standard C and standard math libraries used
by multiple programs on the system. Without these libraries, the Linux
system cannot function properly.

Multiple integer overflow flaws, leading to stack-based buffer overflows,
were found in glibc's functions for converting a string to a numeric
representation (strtod(), strtof(), and strtold()). If an application used
such a function on attacker controlled input, it could cause the
application to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code.
(CVE-2012-3480)

This update also fixes the following bug:

• Previously, logic errors in various mathematical functions, including

exp, exp2, expf, exp2f, pow, sin, tan, and rint, caused inconsistent
results when the functions were used with the non-default rounding mode.
This could also cause applications to crash in some cases. With this
update, the functions now give correct results across the four different
rounding modes. (BZ#839411)

All users of glibc are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct these issues.

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 - 847715 - CVE-2012-3480 glibc: Integer overflows, leading to stack-based buffer overflows in strto* related routines

CVEs

• CVE-2012-3480

References

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