RHSA-2014:1391 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated glibc packages that fix two security issues, several bugs, and add
two enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate 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

The glibc packages provide the standard C libraries (libc), POSIX thread
libraries (libpthread), standard math libraries (libm), and the Name
Server Caching Daemon (nscd) used by multiple programs on the system.
Without these libraries, the Linux system cannot function correctly.

An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in the way the glibc's readdir_r()
function handled file system entries longer than the NAME_MAX character
constant. A remote attacker could provide a specially crafted NTFS or CIFS
file system that, when processed by an application using readdir_r(), would
cause that application to crash or, potentially, allow the attacker to
execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the
application. (CVE-2013-4237)

It was found that getaddrinfo() did not limit the amount of stack memory
used during name resolution. An attacker able to make an application
resolve an attacker-controlled hostname or IP address could possibly cause
the application to exhaust all stack memory and crash. (CVE-2013-4458)

These updated glibc packages also include several bug fixes and two
enhancements. Space precludes documenting all of these changes in this
advisory. Users are directed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 Technical
Notes, linked to in the References section, for information on the most
significant of these changes.

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

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/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• 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 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 Power, big endian 6 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 Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 905941 - Fix memory fencing error in unwind-forcedunwind.c
• BZ - 981942 - ping6 with idn causes crash
• BZ - 995839 - CVE-2013-4237 glibc: Buffer overwrite when using readdir_r on file systems returning file names longer than NAME_MAX characters
• BZ - 1022280 - CVE-2013-4458 glibc: Stack (frame) overflow in getaddrinfo() when called with AF_INET6
• BZ - 1032628 - Symbol lookup in elf/dl-lookup.c results in returning wrong values
• BZ - 1043557 - nscd segfaults when running sudo with netgroup caching enabled.
• BZ - 1044628 - getaddrinfo return EAI_NONAME instead of EAI_AGAIN in case the DNS query times out
• BZ - 1087833 - nscd-2.12-1.132.el6 enters busy loop on long netgroup entry via nss_ldap of nslcd
• BZ - 1099025 - ftime() possibly broken on ppc

CVEs

• CVE-2013-4237
• CVE-2013-4458

References

• https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#moderate
• https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/6.6_Technical_Notes/glibc.html#RHSA-2014-1391