RHSA-2015:2623 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated grub2 packages that fix one security issue and one bug are now
available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

Red Hat Product Security 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.

[Updated 27 January 2016]
This advisory has been updated to document additional steps that need to be
performed on BIOS-based systems after installing this update. No changes
were made to the packages included in the advisory.

Description

The grub2 packages provide version 2 of the Grand Unified Bootloader
(GRUB), a highly configurable and customizable bootloader with modular
architecture. The packages support a variety of kernel formats, file
systems, computer architectures, and hardware devices.

A flaw was found in the way the grub2 handled backspace characters entered
in username and password prompts. An attacker with access to the system
console could use this flaw to bypass grub2 password protection and gain
administrative access to the system. (CVE-2015-8370)

This update also fixes the following bug:

• When upgrading from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 and earlier, a

configured boot password was not correctly migrated to the newly introduced
user.cfg configuration files. This could possibly prevent system
administrators from changing grub2 configuration during system boot even if
they provided the correct password. This update corrects the password
migration script and the incorrectly generated user.cfg file. (BZ#1290089)

All grub2 users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct these issues. For this update to take
effect on BIOS-based machines, grub2 needs to be reinstalled as documented
in the "Reinstalling GRUB 2 on BIOS-Based Machines" section of the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7 System Administrator's Guide linked to in the References
section. No manual action is needed on UEFI-based machines.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.2 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.2 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.2 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.2 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian 7 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.7 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.2 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.2 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.7 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.2 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 1286966 - CVE-2015-8370 grub2: buffer overflow when checking password entered during bootup
• BZ - 1290089 - Grub password broken by update from RHEL7.1 to RHEL7.2

CVEs

• CVE-2015-8370

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#normal