7.1 - RHSA-2008:0295

Problem Description:

An updated vsftpd package that fixes a security issue and several bugs is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

This update has been rated as having low security impact by the Red Hat Security Response Team.

2. Relevant releases/architectures:

RHEL Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) - i386, x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) - i386, ia64, ppc, s390x, x86_64

3. Description:

The vsftpd package includes a Very Secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP) daemon.

A memory leak was discovered in the vsftpd daemon. An attacker who is able to connect to an FTP service, either as an authenticated or anonymous user, could cause vsftpd to allocate all available memory if the "deny_file" option was enabled in vsftpd.conf. (CVE-2007-5962)

As well, this updated package fixes following bugs:

* a race condition could occur even when the "lock_upload_files" option is set. When uploading two files simultaneously, the result was a combination of the two files. This resulted in uploaded files becoming corrupted. In these updated packages, uploading two files simultaneously will result in a file that is identical to the last uploaded file.

* when the "userlist_enable" option is used, failed log in attempts as a result of the user not being in the list of allowed users, or being in the list of denied users, will not be logged. In these updated packages, a new "userlist_log=YES" option can be configured in vsftpd.conf, which will log failed log in attempts in these situations.

* vsftpd did not support usernames that started with an underscore or a period character. Usernames starting with an underscore or a period are supported in these updated packages.

* using wildcards in conjunction with the "ls" command did not return all the file names it should. For example, if you FTPed into a directory containing three files -- A1, A21 and A11 -- and ran the "ls *1" command, only the file names A1 and A21 were returned. These updated packages use greedier code that continues to speculatively scan for items even after matches have been found.

* when the "user_config_dir" option is enabled in vsftpd.conf, and the user-specific configuration file did not exist, the following error occurred after a user entered their password during the log in process:

500 OOPS: reading non-root config file

This has been resolved in this updated package.

All vsftpd users are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which resolves these issues.

4. Solution:

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

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

5. Bugs fixed (http://bugzilla.redhat.com/):

240553 - vsftpd has a create/lock race condition which corrupts uploads 392181 - vsftpd file listing issue with wildcard 392231 - Uploaded file corrupted when two connections from same client uploading same file simultaneously 397011 - CVE-2007-5962 vsftpd: memory leak when deny_file option is set 400921 - OOPS: reading non-root config file