RHSA-2013:0123 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated OpenIPMI packages that fix one security issue, multiple bugs, and
add one enhancement are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having low
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 OpenIPMI packages provide command line tools and utilities to access
platform information using Intelligent Platform Management Interface
(IPMI). System administrators can use OpenIPMI to manage systems and to
perform system health monitoring.

It was discovered that the IPMI event daemon (ipmievd) created its process
ID (PID) file with world-writable permissions. A local user could use this
flaw to make the ipmievd init script kill an arbitrary process when the
ipmievd daemon is stopped or restarted. (CVE-2011-4339)

Note: This issue did not affect the default configuration of OpenIPMI as
shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Prior to this update, the ipmitool utility first checked the IPMI

hardware for Dell IPMI extensions and listed only supported commands when
printing command usage like the option "ipmtool delloem help". On a
non-Dell platform, the usage text was incomplete and misleading. This
update lists all Dell OEM extensions in usage texts on all platforms, which
allows users to check for command line arguments on non-Dell hardware.
(BZ#658762)

• Prior to this update, the ipmitool utility tried to retrieve the Sensor

Data Records (SDR) from the IPMI bus instead of the Baseboard Management
Controller (BMC) bus when IPMI-enabled devices reported SDR under a
different owner than the BMC. As a consequence, the timeout setting for the
SDR read attempt could significantly decrease the performance and no sensor
data was shown. This update modifies ipmitool to read these SDR records
from the BMC and shows the correct sensor data on these platforms.
(BZ#671059, BZ#749796)

• Prior to this update, the exit code of the "ipmitool -o list" option was

not set correctly. As a consequence, "ipmitool -o list" always returned the
value 1 instead of the expected value 0. This update modifies the
underlying code to return the value 0 as expected. (BZ#740780)

• Prior to this update, the "ipmi" service init script did not specify the

full path to the "/sbin/lsmod" and "/sbin/modprobe" system utilities. As a
consequence, the init script failed when it was executed if PATH did not
point to /sbin, for example, when running "sudo /etc/init.d/ipmi". This
update modifies the init script so that it now contains the full path to
lsmod and modrpobe. Now, it can be executed with sudo. (BZ#829705)

• Prior to this update, the ipmitool man page did not list the "-b", "-B",

"-l" and "-T" options. In this update, these options are documented in the
ipmitool man page. (BZ#846596)

This update also adds the following enhancement:

• Updates to the Dell-specific IPMI extension: A new vFlash command, which

allows users to display information about extended SD cards; a new setled
command, which allows users to display the backplane LED status; improved
error descriptions; added support for new hardware; and updated
documentation of the ipmitool delloem commands in the ipmitool manual
page. (BZ#797050)

All users of OpenIPMI are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which contain backported patches to correct these issues and add this
enhancement.

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 - 658762 - ipmitool delloem accesses IPMI before acting (e.g. listing help)
• BZ - 671059 - bad performance of ipmitool sdr by update to 2.0.16
• BZ - 740780 - ipmitool -o list return always 1
• BZ - 742837 - CVE-2011-4339 OpenIPMI: IPMI event daemon creates PID file with world writeable permissions
• BZ - 749796 - Bad performance for ipmitool sdr in verbose mode
• BZ - 829705 - initscript of ipmi contains incomplete path and cannot start by certain users

CVEs

• CVE-2011-4339

References

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