RHSA-2013:0869 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated tomcat6 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

Apache Tomcat is a servlet container for the Java Servlet and JavaServer
Pages (JSP) technologies.

A flaw was found in the way the tomcat6 init script handled the
tomcat6-initd.log log file. A malicious web application deployed on Tomcat
could use this flaw to perform a symbolic link attack to change the
ownership of an arbitrary system file to that of the tomcat user, allowing
them to escalate their privileges to root. (CVE-2013-1976)

Note: With this update, tomcat6-initd.log has been moved from
/var/log/tomcat6/ to the /var/log/ directory.

It was found that the RHSA-2013:0623 update did not correctly fix
CVE-2012-5887, a weakness in the Tomcat DIGEST authentication
implementation. A remote attacker could use this flaw to perform replay
attacks in some circumstances. Additionally, this problem also prevented
users from being able to authenticate using DIGEST authentication.
(CVE-2013-2051)

Red Hat would like to thank Simon Fayer of Imperial College London for
reporting the CVE-2013-1976 issue.

Users of Tomcat are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
correct these issues. Tomcat 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 6.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 6.4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 6.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• 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 Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 6.4 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 6.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Update Support from RHUI 6.4 i386
• Red Hat Gluster Storage Server for On-premise 2.1 x86_64
• Red Hat Storage for Public Cloud (via RHUI) 2.1 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 6.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 927622 - CVE-2013-1976 tomcat: Improper TOMCAT_LOG management in init script (DoS, ACE)
• BZ - 959047 - CVE-2013-2051 tomcat: DIGEST authentication vulnerable to replay attacks

CVEs

• CVE-2013-1976
• CVE-2013-2051

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important
• https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-0623.html