RHSA-2013:0215 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated abrt and libreport packages that fix two security issues are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this update as having
important security impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base
scores, which give detailed severity ratings, are available for each
vulnerability from the CVE links in the References section.

Description

ABRT (Automatic Bug Reporting Tool) is a tool to help users to detect
defects in applications and to create a bug report with all the information
needed by a maintainer to fix it. It uses a plug-in system to extend its
functionality. libreport provides an API for reporting different problems
in applications to different bug targets, such as Bugzilla, FTP, and Trac.

It was found that the
/usr/libexec/abrt-action-install-debuginfo-to-abrt-cache tool did not
sufficiently sanitize its environment variables. This could lead to Python
modules being loaded and run from non-standard directories (such as /tmp/).
A local attacker could use this flaw to escalate their privileges to that
of the abrt user. (CVE-2012-5659)

A race condition was found in the way ABRT handled the directories used to
store information about crashes. A local attacker with the privileges of
the abrt user could use this flaw to perform a symbolic link attack,
possibly allowing them to escalate their privileges to root.
(CVE-2012-5660)

Red Hat would like to thank Martin Carpenter of Citco for reporting the
CVE-2012-5660 issue. CVE-2012-5659 was discovered by Miloslav Trmač of Red
Hat.

All users of abrt and libreport are advised to upgrade to these updated
packages, which 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 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 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 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 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 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 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 854011 - CVE-2012-5659 abrt: Arbitrary Python code execution due improper sanitization of the PYTHONPATH environment variable by installing debuginfo packages into cache
• BZ - 887866 - CVE-2012-5660 abrt: Race condition in abrt-action-install-debuginfo

CVEs

• CVE-2012-5659
• CVE-2012-5660

References

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